Fairies of the Wild West!
by HappyTheCamper
Summary: AU: Natsu Dragneel grew up as the brother of a famous outlaw Zeref, but once they're kicked out of the gang by a ruthless new villain how will the pink haired hero turn his life around? Then, 7 years later the owner of the Heartfilia Railroads comes to town and brings his naive daughter with him to see the western frontier. Can she handle this strange feeling around her new friend?
1. Chapter 1-The Two Brothers

*****EDIT*** This story has been updated slightly since it's original release. Typos have been fixed to the best of my ability, and characters have been changed around to better fit the personalities of the "real life" Fairy Tail counterparts. Enjoy! And please remember if a comment or review seems funny remember it might have referred to the older story**

 **Author's Note: Hello! This is Happycamper999! I am back with an all new _Alternate Universe_ story featuring the character's of Fairy Tail!...and yes, it is a _western_. I hope you enjoy!**

 ** _Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. It, it's story, characters, settings, and all other aspects are the property of Hiro Mashima. The only aspects of this story I can claim are the plot and the setting for the Alternate Universe._**

* * *

Fairies of the _Wild West!_

Chapter One - The Two Brothers

* * *

In a land far-far away lies the Kingdom of Fiore! A small peaceful nation of 17 million, and a place filled with magic! …Wait, that can't be right. Let's start over…

Well, it turns out after further investigation we actually _are_ in Fiore, but the setting and time frame still seem a bit _off_.

Here, Fiore is much like our world's very own _United States_ , a large country that expands over the length of an entire continent. There are many different environments in this Fiore, but for the purposes of this story, we would like to focus on the south western portion of the nation.

Right now, Fiore is in the middle of heavy expansion and industry. "Manifest Destiny" they call it! A moment in time when Fiorens felt that they not only _could_ expand, but they also believed that they were _destined to_ , and eventually that expansion would lead them from coast to coast.

This attitude also helped fuel their western settlement as a whole, and led to the innovation and rise of several large industries like the ever growing Railroad System. Eastern Fiorens would all flock to the desert landscapes of the west on their train carts just to make a better living and to escape the harsh economy in the cities. Despite their desired freedom, the life on the western range was not meant for everyone, and danger lurked everywhere. Then again, there are _a million ways to die in the west_.

Citizens looking to move out west had to be careful with everything they did. They had to guard their money, their land, their property, and most importantly their families. Laws were very thin in this rugged terrain, and outlaws scattered the landscape in every single corner.

Here we find a large group of infamous bandits that make their living robbing stage coaches and train cars, while also striking fear into the locals' hearts. They are known as the _Spriggans_ , and they are feared all throughout the west. Their long-time leader is a young man by the name of _Zeref Dragneel_ ; a boy with black hair who's known crime all his live, but only uses it to keep himself alive. He travels the region with his 13 loyal followers, including his younger and hot-tempered 10 year old brother, _Natsu_.

Right now, the Spriggans are getting ready for their next night-time raid, and here we find Zeref and Natsu riding into the next scene to meet up with their nefarious gang of bandits.

Zeref rides horse-back along a dark and narrow canyon of orange rock and sand as the tiny boy Natsu sits in front of his older brother on the horse in pure silence.

"Well, you're not normally this quiet? You usually jump up at the thought of a new raid. And that's saying something since this is our first one in a long time." Zeref tried pointing out the lack luster attitude of his typically rambunctious little brother.

The pink haired Natsu responded with a sigh as he tugged on his trusty checkered muffler. "Yea, I don't know. This stuff just gets kinda old…"

Zeref laughed and smiled. "Well, you'll have to be more specific. The trades of robbing and outlawing have existed throughout all of history. Of course they're _old_!"

Natsu didn't laugh at the joke. "Yea…hey, why did you start doin' this stuff anyway? I remember you tellin' me you picked it up after mom and dad died."

Zeref smiled again, and slightly turned his head down to better address his younger brother.

"Yea, and you weren't much older than 1. I remember that day…a nasty outlaw came in and cleared the town out. Dad tried stopping him, but he got shot and hanged for trying to fight back. Mom tried protecting us too, but she couldn't make it out either…"

Zeref paused as Natsu collected the all too familiar story. The older brother then continued.

"That's when me and the other Spriggans joined up and left society altogether." He then paused and looked down with a smile. "Lucky for us they didn't mind havin' _a baby_ tag along." He then chuckled as he rubbed his brother's thick head of pink hair, as Natsu had no other choice but to laugh in response.

Natsu then spoke up following the tease. "Yea, but why get into robbin' people?"

Zeref then sighed. "Cause we had no other choice. We were all either orphaned children or homeless adults, and none of us new how to do any real jobs, or how to join society. We just started doing it to survive, I guess."

Natsu paused, and Zeref smiled one last time. "You'll figure it out sooner or later, Natsu…"

They stopped their conversation as they made it to the end of the canyon.

"Here they are." Zeref pointed ahead as they came across the light of a small campfire at the other side of the mountain. When they came around the bend they met up with several members of the Spriggan gang waiting for their ring leader to finally show up.

"Well...what took _you_ two so long?" The beautiful but shrewd bandit, _Brandish µ_ spoke loudly as the other Spriggans joined in with laughter. Despite their own amusement however, the green haired vixen did not looked pleased to see them in the slightest.

"Yea?" Another woman however provided the two newbies with a sly grin. "Did little Natsu have to have his diaper changed?"

The gang sharpshooter, Dimaria Yesta made sure to poke fun at little Natsu whenever she had the chance. She smirked with a tease as she looked to the two brothers.

Zeref chose to laugh, while Natsu turned beat red and ran up to Dimaria while throwing his fists back and forth. "Watch what you're sayin' around me!" He tried to land a hit, but the much taller cowgirl laughed as she easily held him back.

Then the cocky and obnoxious gunslinger with messy black hair, _Wahl Icht_ spoke up with laughter. "Yea, _Zeref-y_. Why'd you show up so late? We shoulda left by now."

Another man, this one with dark skin and long bushy brown hair, stood up and put his foot down. "No kidding! You always pull this crap whenever we're ready to roll out." This was the stubborn _Ajeel Ramel,_ and he never seemed to like the passive style of leadership his gang captain chose to administer during heists.

Zeref looked puzzled at both of their remarks. "I mean, does it really matter? We made it here after all, and the target hasn't even passed us yet."

They all turned to look downhill into the desert night as they each made out a small black line that stretched the entire length of the cool desert ground, and it appeared to be some sort of rail road.

Then they all heard the familiar noise of a locomotive engine howling from the right side of the desert, and they all round up their things. Zeref then looked forward and yelled out to his band of misfits.

"Alright, let's stick close to the back of the train and keep our distance from the engine. The other Spriggans should see the train by now, too. We'll make a signal to the other side of the valley and meet them at the raid."

They all shouted and ran after him as the Spriggans made their way towards the howling train car.

As they raced downhill they all tried to keep their horses up to pace with the large engine, yet as they came beside the train they noticed it started to slow down.

Zeref cried out first in the middle of all the noise and chaos. "Hold on, they suspect something! This may be our chance to jump it!"

They all cheered as Natsu sat behind his little brother. Although he was young, Natsu had taken part in hundreds of robberies, and most of them involved chasing trains down.

That being said, he had never known one to stop in mid-ride before.

" _Huh?_ Hey, Zeref I don't…" Natsu thought in concern as his older brother laughed.

"Stay quiet, Natsu. We'll talk when this is over. Just keep your hand on that gun." Zeref smiled at the eagerness his little brother was expressing, but Natsu simply sat back with discomfort as he clutched his own little revolver.

After a short ride the train suddenly came to a jolting halt. Then the 8 Spriggans all jumped off their horses and grabbed their fire arms. As they walked the length of the train, they made their way to the first cart behind the engine.

Zeref looked back to Natsu. "Remember, the good loot is always in the front car. The drivers do this so if they need to separate the rest of the train, they can always keep track of the main car."

Natsu looked around with anticipation. "Yea, but what about the drivers, or the guys guarding the loot?"

Zeref smiled as he grabbed his own trusty black and silver revolver. "Well, looks like they're in for a surprise."

The ring leader then signaled to one of his Spriggan mates to open the car door. As the large hunk of metal rolled open Zeref's smile changed into a look of confusion.

Inside the car, he found the other six Spriggans sitting with the loot, each prepping the boxes for their new destination.

Zeref looked on with shock. "Hey, how did you…?"

"Relax…" Said the overly proud and equally beautiful leader of the small train squad, _Irene Belserion_. "We already made it on board back in the last town…and to be honest we probably had no business taking this cart in the first place." She began to wave her hand to waft away the stench of the stuffy old train car.

Zeref snapped back with a passive attitude. "Well, that's funny. None of this was part of the plan…" He then looked around and saw no other horses. "And you clearly didn't beat us to the punch…"

She then hopped out and looked to her leader with her usual nonchalant expression.

"…Oops."

Then, two more shadowy figures came out from the cart and smacked Zeref hard on the back of the head with their rifles. The black haired boy wailed with pain as he quickly fell to the ground.

"HEY!" Natsu cried out with concern, but not before Brandish grabbed his arm from behind. Natsu looked up and saw that she would not look him in the eye.

"Please, just stay quiet, Natsu..." She looked conflicted. Natsu always singled this girl out from the others because she always tried avoiding conflicts within the gang, but her gesture to hold the small boy back from helping his older brother suggested she had _ulterior_ motives.

Natsu looked on helplessly as more men jumped out from the cart, and as they did the last figure emerged from behind the cargo.

He stood well over 6 feet tall and had long shaggy white hair with oddly placed _blue_ tattoos all over his face. His western outfit was all black with a dark cloak and hat and he wore a silver belt. He also carried two large black and blue revolvers, and his dark blue eyes pierced thought the night.

He placed his right hand on one of his revolvers as Zeref began to laugh from the dirt. "Well, shit. If it isn't the demon who took everything I had!" Zeref then smiled sarcastically and turned to his younger brother.

"Get a good look, Natsu. This is what true evil looks like…" His remark was quickly silenced as the white haired figure kicked him hard in the jaw and sent him spitting blood into the dirt.

The man then looked up with a serious expression. "Well, _Dragneel,_ or whatever stupid nickname they call you. It seems like your loyal band of Spriggans has gone out looking for new employment. Now, allow me to relieve them of their failed leader."

Natsu cried out again. "What's he talking about!?"

Zeref smiled through the pain. "Natsu…remember how we never take you to collect our rewards? That's because they all go to this guy…and he seems a bit mad that we haven't found any good jobs in a while…"

The black haired boy then looked up to meet the evil man in the eyes and continued. "…and _he's_ the one who killed our parents."

"Wha…?" Natsu gasped with disbelief. _Why would Zeref stoop so low as to take hire from the man that killed his parents? Was he that desperate?_

The tall man continued. "Oh you're still mad about that nonsense? No wonder these rumors have been spreading. You _have_ been trying to ditch the group haven't you?" He then laughed as Zeref match his humor.

"You're smarter than you look, _Acnologia_." Zeref then collapsed as the tall man, now referred to as Acnologia replied.

"That's the _Black Dragon_ to you, you little pest!" He then signaled for his cronies to lift Zeref up and hold him still, and as they did Acnologia raised his gun and pointed it into the forehead of Zeref.

"And I hope you remember it after your little trip to _hell_."

Natsu cried out with agony as two of the Spriggan men help up his older brother's head. "HOLD ON! _ZEREF!_ "

"You shouldn't be seeing this, Natsu!" Brandish felt slightly guilty and didn't want Natsu to see the incident play out; so she swung around and blocked his vision, and brought him in for a tight hug.

Meanwhile Zeref shook with fear and smiled as he yelled back to his younger brother. "Natsu, remember what I told you earlier…"

*Sob* "Yea…" Natsu cried into the female outlaw's shirt as he couldn't move his arms to wipe away his tears.

 _"_ _Just keep your hand on that gun."_

*BANG*

* * *

 **Well...that was actually sort of heartbreaking. Maybe I can't write this.**

 **Just kidding, it's already finished over on _Microsoft Word_! Expect me to release _one chapter_ each day! (Unless there's a holiday or freak-event stopping me.)**

 **Be sure to leave comments on the story, and if you enjoyed it look for the second chapter tomorrow! It will also come with a little longer opening note.**

 _ **(BTW if you don't think you are enjoying it, I please ask you to make it to at least Chapter 3 before you give up...though to be honest I can't force any of you to make that decision, and I will ultimately respect it either way.)**_


	2. Chapter 2-Magnolia Town

**Author's Note: Hello, this is Happycamper999 again! Here's the second chapter of the story, but I'd like to brush up on a few things before we get back into it.**

 **Now...a _western_? Usually when you see AU's on this site they're more often than not a "Princess/Prince" sorta thing, or a "FT high school mash-up." While I have read many versions of these stories before and _LOVED_ them all, I wanted to break the mold (I may not actually be breaking the mold. I am 100% certain I am not the first writer of an FT western, but I still feel that my story will be unique.) That being said it was rather fun to try and keep the characters from going OOC, but also to let them expand a bit as well.**

 **Finally, this is a _western_...so there will be a ton of romantic elements involved; _both_ meanings of the word (high exaggeration for the purpose of enhanced grandeur, _and_ the term used for _love and relationships_.) There will be a lot of shipping...obviously with NaLu. **

**Anyway I hope you enjoy the second chapter, and welcome to my page!**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_.**

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Chapter Two - Magnolia Town

* * *

Natsu was instantly released from Brandish's grip, and right away he quickly ran face first into his brother's lifeless corpse. He cried uncontrollably as the other Spriggans began to gather up the train loot.

The Spriggan's navigator, _Ajeel Ramel_ walked by the scene with a quick smirk. "Hey, he really wasn't much of a leader anyway." The arrogant young man then stepped over Zeref's body and jumped onto the train and gathered more boxes for his new leader, Acnologia.

"Hey Boss!" Yelled the loud and rather annoying horse wrangler Wahl. "Should I pop one in the kid too, haha!" He laughed hysterically as he held up his pistol.

Dimaria rolled her eyes, and Brandish looked right towards Wahl. "Just stop."

She was quickly silenced however as Acnologia looked up and gave her a command.

"Wait, let's see what happens…Bradman, you can have the honors."

Wahl Icht stopped as the two other outlaws stepped back, and laughed in agreement as the rest of them all observed the next scene.

The tall and menacing gang member known as Bradman then stepped forward. He was broad shouldered with a dark cloak covering his full body, with the exception of his eyes. He also carried around a cold, black steel double barreled shot gun he dubbed "The Reaper."

Every member in the gang was notorious for performing terrible acts of crime, but Bradman had the groups's highest death tally to his name, leaving his infamy and ransom as the highest of all the members.

"Very well, if my leader asks it of me...it shall be done." Bradman walked over and looked into Natsu's eyes. "If thou has any last words, he may make his claim."

Natsu made no noises except the sound of his throat choking on tears.

Bradman pulled down on the hammer of his gun and aimed it right for the young boy's head. "So it shall be. In time, thine body will join thy brother's in the sorry after life..."

Then, Natsu began to growl with anger; and as Bradman put his finger on his own trigger Natsu rolled around performed the unlikely.

 _*BANG!*_

The little Dragneel brother took up his brother's revolver and put a bullet into the bad man's chest, killing him then and there.

Natsu began to pant rapidly as his heart raced with unwanted adrenaline. He just killed a man, all at _age 10_.

Dimaria and Brandish held their hands over their faces with disbelief as Wahl and Ajeel let out a loud laugh each, and all Irene and the other Spriggan's could do was shake their heads.

Even the group's eldest member and second-in-command August stepped forward and put his two cents into his new boss's ear. "Acno, you need to leave the boy to die on his own. Let the coyotes have him...he's already proven to be too much trouble."

Acnologia looked at his vice-bandit with a sly grin, then smirked and walked up to the small and timid boy.

He then bent over and looked him in the eyes. "Little _Natsu_ , the brother of _Zeref Dragneel_."

Natsu looked up and gathered his strength as he scowled back in his face.

"That's _Salamander_ to you."

Acnologia laughed with amusement.

"Cute."

And just then he socked Natsu right in the face, leaving him to pass out from the hard blow to the head.

* * *

Natsu woke up not knowing where he was. His head hurt and the day was extremely hot. He then realized he was lying down in a covered wagon, and as he gained his mobility he began to feel searing pain on his upper right arm.

"Oww!" He cried out as he touched his upper right arm. When he looked over and rolled up his sleeve her found a fresh and painful _brand mark_ seared into his arm. It appeared to be some sort of weird and frilly design with wings and a tail (we all know it as the _Fairy Tail emblem_ ) but Natsu didn't know what it meant in this world, and as a result he then scratched his head in confusion.

"What is that…?" Natsu had no idea what it was, but as he pondered more he looked over and grabbed his scarf from beside his sleeping bag. He then crawled forward to stick his head out the front of the tent.

He saw two horses pulling his cart, and behind the rains he noticed a rather tall and muscular man with a black riding cloak was sitting in the driver's seat. He also had a black cowboy hat on, and his hair was all orange and slicked back behind his head. Finally, he had a rough amount of orange facial hair covering his handsome face, and as he saw Natsu he turned around and smiled.

"Well, the little guy's awake! I was getting worried!" The man then patted the seat beside him. "Come have a seat up here, why don'tcha?"

Natsu rubbed his arm and crawled out to sit by the stranger. " _Ugh_ , who are you?"

"What, I don't even get a "hello," or a "thank you" first?" The mysterious man laughed. "The name's _Gildarts_ , and I just saved your sorry hide from starvation."

Natsu did a double take. "Gildarts _Clive_? The Federal Marshal!?"

A cop. Natsu was rescued from near death by a _cop_.

"Hah, you know me!" Gildarts laughed. "That's good. Can I ask for your name while we're at it?"

Natsu looked on in the distance, before realizing what might happen. "Nat… _su_."

Gildarts then laughed again with sarcasm in his voice. "Yea, I know."

He then shoved a stack of flyers into the lap of the little boy. Each one was a wanted poster and they all had the faces of the notorious _Spriggan_ gang on them.

Natsu thumbed through the stack until he found his own little mug staring right back at him.

"Hang on! Mine's only worth 10,000J?" He cried out with anger at the measly reward being offered for his capture. Although Natsu couldn't read words, he was pretty good with numbers, especially when it came to money.

Gildarts laughed and shrugged. "Yea, you're just a kid. We weren't even planning to throw you away if you got caught."

"...hmm?" The tall Marshall then looked over and noticed Natsu got really quiet.

Gildarts looked down as Natsu then sat in silence as he flipped over to his now dead brother's picture looking back at him.

"Yea...I saw what happened." Gildarts sighed and patted Natsu on the shoulder. " B-But hey! Don't worry, we buried his body at the foot of the nearby hill and left a wooden marker over it for the future."

Natsu nodded and put his face into his palms.

Gildarts sighed and smiled at the same time. "Ah cheer up! If I could guess it, your brother would prefer it if you moved on and lived your life to the fullest!" He then continued.

"Let me take you back to town and we can find some work for ya there."

As they road along the dirt and sand in the open desert landscape Natsu then looked back over to Gildarts.

"Hey, you've been around this place a lot. You know what this is?" The ten year old boy then pushed up his short sleeve and showed Gildarts his branded right arm.

Although it was pretty hard to see a boy his age carrying a piece of burned flesh on his arm, Gildarts simply looked at the obscure brand scar and pondered.

"Hmm, well it's nothing I've ever seen before. I do know some gangs like to mark things like their enemies or property, but those Spriggans are still kinda new to these parts...So it's safe to say they see you as one of those things!"

Natsu then pouted and looked out into the desert. "So did you happen to find out where they went?"

Gildarts sighed and spoke the truth. "Afraid not. Their new guy is pretty good at losing our trail. Musta gone further west. They wouldn't have gotten much outta going east on account of the army being so close."

Natsu the shrugged. "Why isn't the army out here?"

Gildarts smiled. "This is the wide open western frontier, kid. Fiore doesn't have the time or resources to send a whole army to the desert. So they make due by shipping us marshals out in order to keep the peace. It pays well, but it's sorta a shock if you aren't use to the life style."

Natsu looked rather annoyed at the thought of the wealthy Fiorens in their big wealthy cities. "Oh yea, I bet they're all living real fancy in the east."

Gildarts shrugged and smiled. "Who cares? They have their home, and we have ours." The Federal Marshall then pointed ahead as he and Natsu finally made it to the small desert town of _Magnolia_.

Natsu lit up with excitement. "Whoa, I don't think I've ever been _this_ far west before!"

Gildarts smiled. "Yea? Well welcome to Magnolia, kid! Now let's see if the mayor has a job for ya."

* * *

After wondering through the small town of Magnolia Gildarts and Natsu finally made it into the office of Mayor _Makarov Dreyor_ , the local figure head and elected leader of the tiny desert town.

Gildarts and Natsu both sat inside the Mayor's office as Makarov looked at his new citizen from across his desk.

"Ah, well hello there my boy! Welcome to Magnolia! I've heard you had a rough few days?"

Natsu looked down with discomfort as Gildarts glared at the short man, and the mayor then retracted his poor choice of words.

"Agh, what I meant to say is; I hope you're ready for your new life here in town! We'd love to have you join us on the railroad."

"Rail…road?" Natsu pondered that thought for _two_ reasons. Firstly, he had spent the last seven or so years of his life chasing down and robbing trains for a living, and the thought of actually working on their side confused his tiny ten year old brain way too much.

The second reason was because he had a dreadful fear of moving vehicles, and even conjured a bit of _motion sickness_ whenever he had to ride on anything that wasn't alive.

In fact, if it wasn't for the shock of losing his brother the night before, he probably would have hurled all over Gildart's brand new stage coach on his way into town.

Makarov smiled. "Yes, we are situated right along the famous _Heartfilia Railway_ , and our town is one of many that's responsible for making sure those rails make it all the way out west."

He went to continued, but was stopped as his obnoxious son and Sheriff of Magnolia, _Ivan Dreyor_ spoke up with his own mind. "Makarov, you don't want this little brat on your rail road team. After all it's obvious he's an _ex-con_. Look at his arm!"

The whole room of men then looked down and noticed Natsu trying to hide his new brand mark, and as he did Gildarts snapped back with patience.

"Ivan you know as well as I do that half our workers are all ex-cons; we use it as a rehabilitation program. I mean just last week I brought in those two kids from that _Phantom gang_ and they seem to be alright."

Then, a tall and rather quiet blonde boy who appeared to have a deputy's badge on his chest spoke his mind with a tiny smirk on his face. "Yea, I'm with the geezer. This kid looks like he'll be a good fit."

"Well alright then!" Ivan threw his hands in the air with displeasure. " _Laxus,_ why don't you just give him your badge and let him join the force?"

Makarov yelled out with anger. "Enough! Both of you out of my office!"

Ivan hissed and Laxus rolled his eyes as the two officers left the room. Makarov then continued.

"Apologies for my _son_ and _grandson_ , but they don't often see eye to eye. Now, as I was saying we'd love to have you join our town."

The mayor waited for an answer, but Natsu only came back with another excuse. "I mean, I don't even live here. I got no family, I can't read…and I've never really worked before…." He then reflected on his brother's old thoughts on work and survival.

Gildarts then laughed and patted the young boy on the back. "Geeze kid, why do ya think I'm going through all this effort to bring you here in the first place?"

Natsu looked up, and Mayor Makarov smiled as Gildarts continued.

"You're coming home to live with me and my daughter!"

* * *

 **GILDARTS! MAKAROV! _LAXUS_!...and Ivan. **

**I loved plugging every character into new rolls that fit the western lifestyle, and I really hope you're enjoying them, too!**

 **Apologies for the super long header note, but I'm just so excited to be writing again I wanted to reveal all my major concerns with writing my first AU. Comments are very appreciated, and If you enjoy my story stop by my page and check out my other work!**

 **Until tomorrow!**

 **(BTW: New Subbed episode came out, new Dubs came out, New chapters, the Christmas chapter in manga, and the Fairy Tail ZERO anime in January! It's a good time to be a FT fan!)**


	3. Chapter 3-A Diamond in the Rough

**Author's Note: Hello! I hope you're enjoying the story so far! This is a good chapter, cause now we get to meet more characters you know and love!**

 **Also, I do not own Fairy Tail.**

* * *

Chapter Three - A Diamond in the Rough

* * *

We're now _seven whole years_ into the future. Natsu is now a seventeen year old man working as a rail hand in the small western company-town of Magnolia as he helps build the new tracks and facilities for the everlasting _Heartfilia Railway_.

He is also living with his foster father of seven years, Gildarts Clive on the outskirts of town. Federal Marshal and main defender of Magnolia, Gildarts moved out to the west in his early years to help spread the laws of the east onward. However, within the last 20 years he decided to settle down in the small desert town and start up a family of his own.

Sadly, his beautiful wife Cornelia died 18 years ago as she was giving birth to their beloved daughter, Cana. Now, Gildarts claims Natsu and Cana both as his own blood and watches over the peaceful town with a rifle in his hand and a smile on his face.

Here, Natsu and his co-workers finish their long day of rail work as they make their way to the center of town. Although it was full of sand and dust and some of the buildings were beginning to fall apart, this was still their home.

Natsu and friends began to laugh and celebrate as their long day came to an end…and yes, to this day he still has that trusty scarf wrapped around his neck.

"Boy that was a doozy! I hope they let us off the hook tomorrow!" Natsu began to cheer loudly as they had just finished putting up a large length of track in the south.

His dark haired friend, and longtime rail-hand Gray Fullbuster laughed in response. "Yea, but it is awfully rewarding to see each length go down." Gray had known the rail way all his life. He and his parents moved out to the west and followed its growth for the early days before they both died of a bad fever.

"HA! What are you talking about? The only rewarding part is the after party!" Walking beside them was their rough and hard headed friend with long, spiky black hair, Gajeel Redfox.

Gajeel, or "Black Steel" as they use to call him had previously been in a former gang of outlaws call the _Phantom Lords_. Despite that black past, Marshal Gildarts caught him at a young age and helped him turn his life around.

Natsu looked on with a puzzled expression as he didn't understand Gajeel's comment. "After party?"

Gray laughed. "Yea, apparently the owner of the Rail Road is coming out later today to monitor its progression. I guess we're gonna have a celebration for him at the Town Hall."

Gajeel laughed. "Yea, and I could use a bit of relaxation. We've done enough work bustin' our asses for this jerk over the past few days anyway."

Natsu shook his head and laughed as they entered a nearby saloon. " _Pff._ Whatever you say, Gajeel."

Natsu laughed at that remark, but in a way he had to agree. Growing up with outlaws on the run Natsu had a hard time accepting established society for a while, and he really disliked the wealthy elite of the east, and especially the cocky attitudes they brought with them every step of the way.

As they entered into the doorway they were greeted by the lovely white haired bar keep, Mirajane Strauss. "Hello boys! Welcome back to _Fairy Tail_!"

The _Fairy Tail Saloon and Diner_. The main attraction in the small town of Magnolia, and the #1 gathering place for everyone in the village.

As soon as she finished, her younger yet equally attractive sister, Lisanna laughed and replied. "So, you guys lookin' to order a few drinks?"

Gajeel shouted out with impatience as he took his seat. "Duh!? Now let's get 'em out here, already!"

"Hey, watch it tough guy!" Yelling from over in the side of the bar was the rather large door man and brother of the bar tenders, Elfman.

"HEY!" The white haired brute of a man was taking a break and sitting next to his lovely wife, Evergreen before he heard Gajeel's comment pierce his ear. " _Real men_ don't yell back at ladies, especially if they're my sisters!"

Evergreen snapped and gestured over to her husband. "Would you just sit down, you dunce! Quit causing a scene!"

Gajeel went to snap back as well, but another girl spoke up from behind. "Relax, Gajeel isn't a _real man_ anyway."

Standing behind the scruffy rail road worker was the town librarian and local book worm, Levy McGarden. She had beautiful short blue hair and wore a modest but lovely orange gown as she entered into the conversation, and she also had the privilege of being Gajeel's _girlfriend_.

Levy smiled as she sat next to her large companion, Gajeel and hugged him passionately. "How was work today, Sweetie?"

Gajeel chuckled as he sipped his drink. "More work than you did, I'm sure."

"Gajeel, be nice!" Sitting across the table and next to the other guys was none other than Juvia Lockster, the Library Aid and girlfriend to Gray. She was also a former member of the same gang Gajeel was in as a child, and their mutual "friendship" went back a long way.

Juvia then continued and began to blush. "Besides, I'm sure you all weren't as hard working as my beloved Gray! Isn't that right, my love!?" She smiled with passion as she rested her pretty blue head on his shoulder.

Gray chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Nah, we all had the same job, today. I just get paid more."

Natsu growled as he took a sip of his ale. "Yea, which is really lousy if you ask me! You can't even keep your shirt on for a whole day!"

Gray snapped back with anger. "Yea, well that's cause I've been here longer; and as for that second comment? It gets hot out there, and sometimes I need to cool off." He then looked over to Juvia who sat next to him with hearts in her eyes.

"Oh please _tell_ me about it…!" She melted away with a romantic image in her mind as the others rolled their eyes and kept drinking.

Levy then winked over to Natsu. "So, when's the _Salamander_ gonna get himself a girl? There _is_ that big party coming up tonight for the rail road crew." She laughed as she tried instigating a new idea.

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Yea, like I have the time and money to waste on a girl…!" He then stopped as a very beautiful brown haired girl with a cowboy hat put her arm around him and laughed.

"Yea, and there's no way I'd let my little brother date at his age!"

Natsu's foster sister, Cana had apparently come to join the fun in the bar. She worked as the aid to the Mayor's Office and knew everyone in the town by their full name. She was also the town's heaviest drinker, and put all the men to shame when it came time to defend her title.

Natsu rolled his eyes and sank into his chair. "Geeze, relax. I ain't datin' no one!"

*DING-DONG* _"HE'S HERE! HE'S HERE!"_

They all snapped their heads towards the windows and got up to venture outside as the town bell and crier both began to announce the arrival of a large and luxurious locomotive train at the north end of town.

As they all ran outside Natsu looked over to Gray and laughed. "Wow, this guy sure seems like a real stiff. Look at that stupid thing!" He exclaimed as he mocked the elaborate and very expensive train car as it rolled into place.

Gray looked back to his pink haired friend with confusion. "Who cares? He _is_ the one who pays us, after all."

Then, as they each made it to the small town square the whole group looked over to the train station as they saw five or so men standing in wait.

The first two included the foreman and chief operator to the railroad project, Macao Conbolt; and beside him was his assistant Wakaba Mine.

Macao rolled his eyes and began to sulk in the arrival of his cross-country employer. "Oh man, I hope my boys got enough work done on those last few track lines!"

Wakaba grabbed the pipe out of his mouth and began to laugh. "Nah, I imagine no amount of work those goons do will ever be enough."

Standing beside the two rail road managers was the local Marshal and foster father to Natsu, Gildarts Clive. Below him stood the town's tiny yet rowdy mayor, Makarov Dreyar who stood in anticipation for this huge publicity event.

Finally, the last man was actually much younger than the others and appeared to be the grandson of the mayor; and this fellow also acted as the town's youngest man ever to be elected as Sheriff, _Laxus Dreyar_.

As they all stood there Gildarts held his hand behind his head and laughed a loud. "Boy, Mayor I hope this place looks good enough for ol' Heartfilia. I've heard he can be a real ball buster!" He laughed with sarcasm as Makarov stood with tension in his legs.

"Mmm…" The small mayor was very anxious for his new guest and didn't want things to go badly. "Yes, I agree. In any case everyone just needs to act casual. And please, no funny business, Laxus."

The recently elected Sheriff stopped and laughed. "Gsh, calm down gramps; this guy's nothing. We'll be fine.

He then turned and looked right at Gildarts with a joking expression, but kept his response geared towards his grandfather. "Besides, I hear _his daughter's_ with him, so maybe he'll decide to relax a bit while he's at it..."

Makarov snapped back with anger as he heard the news. "WHAT!? THAT'S EVEN _WORSE_ THAN I THOUGHT! We can't have _a debutant_ laying eyes on this ugly, dust bowl of a town!"

Suddenly, they all looked over to the train as the door opened, revealing a tall and handsome older man with combed blonde hair and a neatly trimmed mustache who walked out of the rail car. He also wore a very expensive brown suit with red tie as he entered the town.

Everyone cheered out with great intensity as he barely smiled and waved his hand to greet them all.

Gray made his remark. "Well, that's _Jude Heartfilia_ ; millionaire tycoon to the _Heartfilia Railway._ " He looked serious but stopped as Natsu rolled his eyes without looking impressed.

"Pff, these dummies are all acting ridiculous. Don't they know this guy's stealing money from 'em?!" He went to continue but stopped and widened his eyes as the second guest came out behind Jude.

This visitor appeared to be _a girl_ , and she was much younger and far more beautiful than anyone he had ever seen. She looked to have long blonde hair rolled up in a neat bun, and also let a few bangs hang down in front of her face. She also wore a lovely and elaborate pink and red gown with white and red ribbons all over, and she also wore a matching lace collar with a red ribbon around her neck (to fit with this era's fashion trends.) Finally, she had a soft smile on her face and she appeared to be holding a pink sun umbrella as she stepped out of the car to greet the town.

Natsu was speechless as Cana laughed came over to put her arm around her foster brother's shoulders. "Sheesh. Ya didn't know he had a smokin' hot daughter, did ya'?"

* * *

Later that night the entire town attended the extravagant ceremony being held at the town mess hall in honor of the Heartfilia Family's arrival. The local string band was playing loud and the Strauss's of Fairy Tail had agreed to cater the event's food and drinks all evening.

Meanwhile, the familiar group from before all sat around a large table as they each moaned in boredom.

"Ugh, come on, Gajeel! Let's have some fun and try a dance or two!" Levy tried to get her boyfriend to join her on the dance floor, but he wasn't up for it.

"Nah, I'm perfectly fine right here." He looked on with a serious face as he took a large drink of whiskey from his glass.

Juvia then looked over to Gray. "Well, my love. Should _we_ go out and enjoy a dance of our own?"

Gray took one last drink form his glass before he smiled. "Eh, what the hell?" He then held out his left elbow and had her grab ahold, and although she almost passed out from over joy she accepted his romantic offer and joined him in the celebration.

Natsu chuckled as they left. "Pff, you guys look soo stupid with your little dancing crap!" He then stopped laughing as he looked to his empty glass.

"Eh, I'll be right back."

Natsu got up and began to navigate himself through the large crowd of familiar faces. Truth be told he had never felt comfortable in large crowds and didn't even want to attend this event.

Despite that, his father asked him to come for at least a couple of hours, and as soon as he met up with Gildarts he would us that as his cue to ditch the scene.

He finally made it to the refreshments table as he then noticed a large crowd of people standing to his left. It was made of predominantly boys who all had very expensive suits on.

"Where the hell do you get those kinda cloths out here, anyway?" Natsu chuckled to himself as he took a bottle of ale from the table. However before he could leave, a tall and obnoxious boy walked in front of his path and stepped on his toe.

"Watch where you're going, please." The overly posh boy grinned with sarcasm as he shifted his glasses onto his face and combed through his bright orange hair with his other hand.

Natsu rolled his eyes as he realized who it was. "Oh, Loke. It's you…"

Natsu didn't truly hate the local tailor and garment salesmen as much as it seems. Even though he was rich, Loke was actually rather friendly, and even offered good discounts to the rail workers; but other than that he seemed to be a person who could only be handled in doses.

"Ay it's no problem, Natsu! You're probably just exhausted from all that field work!" Loke laughed as he patted Natsu on the arm, while the pink haired rail worker didn't seem to find his comment as funny.

Natsu straightened up his act and replied. "Why you so antsy anyway?"

Loke grinned and turned away. "What does it look like? I'm here to win the hearts of all the lovelies attending tonight's party!" He then turned and faced the crowd to the left.

"And there happens to be _one_ girl on my mind that I simply can't ignore…" Loke then continued to walk into the large group of boys as they all had no choice but to make way for his entrance.

Natsu then realized who Loke was talking about, and rolled his eyes as he noticed they were all surrounding the pretty blonde daughter of Jude Heartfilia.

The pink haired rail-hand turned around and tried to walk away, but was stopped once again as a large muscular arm wrapped around his shoulder.

"Well well, Natsu has his eyes on _Lucy Heartfilia_. Heiress to the Country's rail roads. HA!" Standing beside Natsu was none other than Sheriff Laxus, who found amusement in Natsu's choice of women; and he also spoke a little louder than Natsu would have liked.

Natsu continued to roll his eyes as he forced the much taller Laxus to turn around with him. "Pff, no way! She's just some rich girl who gets dolled up for dances."

"Oh, I'm just some doll, am I?"

Natsu gasped and Laxus raised his eyebrow as they both turned around to see the exact same Lucy Heartfilia standing right behind them with a self-confident grin on her face.

They then looked over her shoulder to find a miserable Loke sulking in the corner after what appeared to be a heart breaking turn-down.

Laxus laughed hysterically and patted Natsu on the back. "Eh, I'll let you fix this one, Natsu…" He then continued to howl with laughter and walked away with his two Deputies, Freed and Bickslow right on his tail.

Lucy giggled as she looked to her next acquaintance. "So, _Natsu_ is it? That's a nice name! I've read somewhere it means "summer" in another language." She smiled and widened her large brown eyes in interest as Natsu looked even more annoyed.

So much so he even scowled a bit in his response. "Oh _reading_? Well I bet you think you're pretty smart too."

Lucy put her hand over her face to conceal her faint blush, and continued to laugh. "Well _somebody_ has a short temper. Haha, I kinda like that."

Natsu's cheeks flushed with confusion as Lucy then grabbed a glass of pre-poured ale off the table and continued to talk.

"I'm Lucy! It's nice to meet you!" She stuck her hand out for a handshake, but never received a returning gesture.

Natsu still looked confused, and ignored her hand. "Huh, you seem awfully friendly for a rich girl…" He said with suspicion as he took a drink from his beverage.

Lucy smiled and took it like a champ. "Come on, give me a break! I am just a person after all." She then looked on with awe as she gazed around the whole room.

"I really like your town! Some of the men here are a little too forward, but everyone really seems to enjoy themselves!"

Natsu looked around with her and let out a faint smile. "Yea, it's small, but once ya get used to it, it's easy to live in..."

He then remembered what kind of person he was talking too. "I mean if ya like getting your cloths dirty and what not. We here in Magnolia can only afford about 2 shirts each."

"Mhmm, why do I get the feeling that was a joke?" Lucy sighed with sarcasm and took a sip of her drink. She then continued. "I've always enjoy visiting small towns anyway. I make sure to bring back a souvenir from each one I visit!"

Natsu thought that seemed a bit ridiculous and cracked a laughed in response. "Well everything here is dirt cheap. Nothing fancy, but it's all usually family made."

Lucy smiled and sighed. "Awe, that sounds sweet. I'd really like to see the whole town for myself!"

She then turned and found her eyes landing on her dad and let them sag a bit. "Oh well, maybe some other time..."

Natsu nodded, and before it got too quiet he slowly looked back at his guest with an awkward expression.

" _So_ …I hear you're from the east?"

* * *

It turns out that unlike his distasteful feelings from before Natsu actually enjoyed the stories Lucy had to share. Over the course of the party the two started talking about everything they could think of, and eventually they even wondered outside on to the front porch to discuss her life of wealth in further detail.

Although Lucy kept trying to steer the conversation back his way, Natsu always stopped her. In his mind he just met this chick, and didn't want to tell her about his "dark past."

They both stopped to laugh as Lucy finished an embarrassing story from her last uptown ball.

"HAHA! No way!? That sounds awful!" Natsu tried poking fun at her as he continued to finish his drink.

Lucy tried to hold her laughter, but even she had to join in. "I know! Those things really get on my nerves sometimes."

Natsu looked puzzled as he took in her words. "What, you don't like being rich?"

Lucy looked too conflicted to provide a straight answer. "Well, let's just say there's a lot expected from me. I don't get much freedom when I go to balls, and I can't say they're always _fun_ …"

Natsu looked angry. "What? That's ridiculous! What kinda jerk keeps you from havin' fun!?"

"Ahem…"

Then, they both paused as Lucy's daunting father, Jude Heartfilia came up behind them to sit in on their conversation.

Natsu whispered under his breath. "Man, I gotta stop doing that…"

Lucy then looked embarrassed and held her head down low. "Father! I'm so sorry for leaving the room. The hall was just getting a little stuffy is all…"

Jude looked angry, but sighed with relief. "Lucy, you had me worried. I understand if the room got too warm, but you should have told me where you went. After all we need to be inside with our hosts as a family, and you _were_ the one who volunteered to join me on this trip …"

Natsu absorbed that comment and naturally cocked his eyebrow with an inner thought. " _She wanted to come  here?!_"

The Heartfilia patriarch then looked down at Natsu with a look of disapproval, but continued as he ignored the boy and addressed his daughter even further. "Now, we must be going. Our room at the inn is ready, and we have a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow. We'll be leaving right at sun rise this time around."

She nodded and obeyed as both of the Heartfilia's walked away, and as Natsu went to say something he was cut short as the small and angry mayor, Makarov came up from behind and grabbed his collar.

"NATSU! WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA, _YOU MORON!?_ ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US ALL FIRED!?"

Natsu looked down with anger. "Geeze, cut it out gramps. Just talking to a newbie."

Makarov sighed as Natsu referred to him with that pet nickname, and the short mayor released him as he continued. "Yes, well keep a better head next time. Please." He then shook his head as he walked off with his own look of disapproval.

Natsu rolled his eyes and went to walk back inside the hall, but as he did he heard his name being called from behind.

" _NATSU!_ It was nice meeting you!"

He then turned around to see that although Lucy was walking away with her father, she apparently stopped to wave good-bye. Sadly, she was cut short as he father reeled her in to give another small scolding.

As Natsu turned around he looked on with a puzzled expression and walked back inside.

"Well that was weird…"

* * *

 **So everyone seems to fit into good roles, and now we've met up with Lucy! :D**

 **Good stuff in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4-Trouble Comes to Town

**Author's Note: Hello! I'm so glad to see people are enjoying my story! Here is chapter four, let me know what you think!**

 **Also, this story is pretty fitting with the _actual_ Zeref and Natsu in the real FT Manga (new chapter yesterday if you were wondering. If you haven't read it yet find it after reading my content and catch up. Very good story so far.)**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_**

* * *

Chapter Four - Trouble Comes to Town

* * *

The next day finally rolled around and the town still seemed alive and awake after their late night extravaganza.

Natsu on the other hand woken up with a heavy head and came into his tiny, dusty living room to see his foster father Gildarts eating his breakfast.

"Ah, this porridge is old…oh, Hey Natsu. How was your night? I gotta say I never saw you at the party." The tall Marshal wiped his chin as he addressed his son.

Natsu growled. "Yea, don't worry I was there…and I stayed out way longer than I planned."

Gildarts laughed and passed him the bottle of milk. "HAH! Eat up, Natsu. I'm sure you'll have a long day." He got up and put on his hat and badge, and left Natsu with on final word.

"Besides, I here ol' Macao is planning on taking you guys straight down south to finish the last leg of tracks! Better find your strength!"

As Gildarts laughed and left the house, Natsu sighed and smashed his head onto the hard wooden table.

"Grr, this town sucks…"

* * *

After a long and excruciating morning the local workers went off on a break inside the Fairy Tail Saloon as they each enjoyed a round of drinks and a quick lunch.

"Man, I thought we'd never reach the far range! Those tracks just kept going for miles and miles!" Gray was in shock from how long their morning had been so far, and quickly took a drink from his glass of ale. Juvia held his arm and looked to her exhausted boyfriend with nurturing concern (although in his mind it may have been too much, we're still not sure.)

Gajeel laughed as he took a sip of whiskey with Levy under his right arm. "Ah who cares, we got it done, didn't we? If not than ol' Conbolt can finish the damn job himself for all I care."

Everyone sighed with acceptance and made a toast to their already long day, and as they all drank up Natsu failed to grab his drink and sat their looking out the window with a troubled expression on his face.

Juvia looked over in concern as she spotted his full glass of ale. "Natsu, what's wrong? You look very unhealthy."

She appeared to be right. Natsu either had some sort of bug, or _something_ was going on his mind.

Levy giggled and made up her own conclusion. "Wow, I wonder if Natsu meet a girl last night?" They all laughed as Gray wave his hands.

"Nah, Natsu would never join _our_ side of life. He's probably just sick or something."

Cana took a large chug from her drink and smiled. "Yea? _Love Sick_ if you ask me. I saw you chattin' up that _Heartfilia_ girl last night! You guy's looked just like two little _perfect_ love birds."

The others gasped as Levy sat up with excitement. "No way! Natsu really!?"

Natsu turned away and rolled his eyes as he tried to ignore his friends. "We just talked for a few minutes, nothin' special."

Gajeel laughed and gave Natsu a soft punch on the shoulder. "A few minutes? No lyin' Salamander! We know who tickles your fancy, now."

Levy sat back with stars in her eyes. "Natsu that's so wonderful! Her name's Lucy, right? Oh she was so pretty! And that dress she wore was _super_ gorgeous!"

Juvia grabbed her own glass and rolled her eyes. "Well, it was a bit over the top if you asked me…"

Gray began to laugh and the addressed Natsu. "Yea well, it doesn't matter. She just left this morning with her dad to go further west." He then grinned and nodded at Natsu. "No wonder you're all down in the dumps, man. I guess you missed your chance."

"Grrr..." Natsu tried holding in his angry emotions. Yes he had a conversation with the Heartfilia girl last night, but he never meant to make anything of it. At the end of the day, he knew she was just some other rich girl who came and went while he and his friends lived out in this miserable desert for the rest of their days.

Just some snobby rich girl...who had really round eyes and a friendly smile...nothing more.

Natsu's head was starting to hurt, and after Gray finished he snapped back and began his self-defense. "Look, I don't know what your guys' problem is, but I don't have no crush on some snooty blonde _princess_!"

*BANG* _"AGH!"_

He went to continue but stopped in shock as he heard a loud gun shot from outside.

Everyone in the saloon ducked and held their hands over their heads as Elfman grabbed a rifle from under the bar. "Mira, Lisanna. Stay inside. That goes for you too, _Ever._ "

Elfman then charged for the door as his sisters yelled back. "ELFMAN! DON'T LEAVE!?"

Evergreen rolled her eyes and laughed "Moron." and finished her drink as she followed her determined husband out the door.

Natsu, Gray and Gajeel then jumped up to follow them, and soon after everyone including the Strauss sisters got up to leave for the street.

They all looked around in shock as a local farmer was lying dead in the streets. Standing above him was a group of three outlaws with wicked looks in their eyes.

Gray and Gajeel scowled, and the latter spoke first. "Who do these posers think they are?"

Natsu wanted to answer, but gasped as he looked forward to see three familiar faces standing in the street.

Hovering over the dead body was none other than the sandy blonde haired vixen of the Wild West, _Dimaria Yesta_ of the infamous _Spriggan 12_. They were known as the most feared and dangerous outlaws in all the territory, and not even the local military wasted its time on their sinister activity. They also became rather popular as of late, and apparently now had 12 fully established members since their rise seven years ago, with the addition of other lowly bandit gangs that is.

It also appeared that now each member of the Spriggan 12 gave up their last name for some phony title, and one such example would involve the gun queen of the Spriggan 12, _Dimaria the Valkyrie_.

Despite being a completely different group, Natsu recognized the former pieces of his brother's older gang, and he didn't take their arrival too kindly.

"Not these monsters…" He said softly with a scowl on his face.

Although he was angry at all of them, it appeared that Dimaria wasn't the one holding the gun. Behind her stood two more familiar faces. One was the wild-faced mad man who usually handled the weaponry for the group, _Wahl the Adjudicator._

The other man had a smug look on his face and held a smoking golden revolver, and Natsu knew his name as _Serena the God._

As tensions rose in the dust bowl of a town, Gildarts Clive strolled out from the Town Hall with an angry face and looked at the intruders with pure distaste.

"Ya know? You're gonna regret doing that in _my_ town." Gildarts stood tall as the town's folk stood idly by.

Standing at the north end of town was Mayor Makarov with Laxus, Freed and Bickslow; and they all had angry expressions on their faces as they watched from the joint porch of the Town Hall and Sheriff's Office.

"Man, these clowns come in here and kill one of our citizens! That won't be easy to clean up." Deputy Bickslow looked over with rage as his comrades stared off into the distance.

Meanwhile Deputy Freed sighed. "Yes, but we must act calm. I'm sure Gildarts will be able to handle this…"

As the scene unfolded back in the streets, Wahl began to laugh. "Uh-oh, hey it looks like the Marshal's come out to play now!"

Dimaria sighed as she rolled her eyes and grinned. "Let him. We'll show them all who they're new employers are while we're at it."

Despite their foolishness, Serena ignored them and looked over to Gildarts with a scowl. "Well. I _don't_ think I'm going to regret..."

He paused there and turned towards the crowd of people around him in a very flamboyant manor, but pointed two fingers right at Gildarts

 _"...Anything!"_

The crowd made several odd noises in response to this strange new man, but Gildarts wasn't falling for anything as he kept his wits about him.

Serena turned his body back to fully face the marshal as he dusted himself off, but continued to keep his voice raised to a theatrical level. "We heard a rumor lately that the owner of _Heartfilia Railways_ came through here not too long ago, and we've also heard he'll be back in town in only a few days' time."

He then turned to address the rest of the town. "Because of that, I think our company will just make this our own little home until the Heartfilia train comes back around!?"

Gildarts rolled his eyes and put his hand on his gun. "Actually, what _you're_ going to do is pay for that man's life. And I'm not letting you or your friends go until that's been taken care of."

Serena then put his hand back on his own flashy gun and faced Gildarts with a smile of his own. "Well, is that so…?"

The whole town stood tall as the scene unfolded, and all from the silence Cana could be heard yelling out in support of her father.

"Come on, Daddy! Kick this guy's ass!"

Serena cracked a distracting smile, but didn't let his eyes leave Gildarts. "That's quite the cheerleader you have there."

Gildarts replied with a stern frown. "That's my daughter…"

 _Silence._

After a few seconds of nothing but the sound of the wind the two men moved, and as they did they each reached for their guns and shot, yet as they released both men hit each other's bullet right in midair, and the shrapnel from the little pieces of metal flew off into the dirt.

"Hah! Well I hope she enjoys having a DEAD MAN FOR A _FATHER!_ " Serena's demeanor changed one hundred and eighty degrees as his eyes began to look void of all sanity, and as that happened he let out a loud howl which caught everyone off guard, and quickly fired a second shot right into the Marshal's left pectoral.

Gildarts looked puzzled but gasped as he heard a loud *BANG* and then felt his chest, and as he moved his hands, his palm filled with blood.

Instead of waiting for a fair _, second_ round of shots Serena pulled a second gun out and shot Gildarts square in the chest.

"Heh, the _Dragon_ taught me that one." Serena blew on the barrel of his left gun and smirked as Gildarts clutched his wounded chest and fell to his knees.

"DAD!" Cana shrieked with disbelief as she ran out to great her wounded father, who was now completely down on the ground.

Natsu and the town's folk let out a loud gasp, and then the pink haired boy ran out to join his sister in the horrifying moment.

"No! Come on ya ol' geezer get up!" Natsu didn't want to live through the pain of seeing another loved one die, but he especially didn't want to think about Cana being alone without a father.

" _Grr_ , That's it!" Sheriff Laxus Dreyor turned to head inside and went to grab his pistol from a desk in order to confront the murderous outlaw, but Makarov grabbed his pant leg before he could leave.

"LAXUS WAIT! We can't be hasty! This man is not playing by our rules…" Truth was, Makarov loved his town and respected Gildarts as a very close friend, but he didn't want to see his grandson go out and try a second round with that murdering mad man before they were able to collect the whole scene, that and no one knew how many other Sriggans there could have been lurking about town. "Just keep your eyes on him and his men. We'll must be ready to strike if they try anything else."

Laxus hissed as he looked on with discomfort, and as he did Serena laughed and holstered his guns as he held his hands back up for another theater-like display of emotions.

"Well I guess we're bigger than the _law_ out here!? Now, how about someone tells us when that Heartfilia train will roll back around, and we can all be…?"

"No way."

Serena and the whole town looked over to Natsu and Cana as the former spoke up with a vindictive hiss.

Cana shuttered in thought as she heard her foster brother's words. "Natsu, please! Not you too!"

Natsu leaned over and gave Cana big hug, and as he finished he stood up, but then grabbed the gun from the ground and put it in his own regular belt.

"HA! What now the _son_ is going to challenge me!?" Serena tried laughing, but even this was too hard to believe. "That's quite the nerve you have there, kid…think you can challenge a _God?_ "

Both Serena and Natsu put their hands on their guns as the town grew quiet, and as Gray and Gajeel ran out to take Cana away from the fight, the tension grew.

 _Silence._

Then, Serena laughed again. "Tell me, what's your name?"

Natsu looked forward with a serious expression and replied.

"I'm _Salamander_."

*BANG*

Serena couldn't even blink before he felt the tiny black bullet pierce his chest and end his life.

As he fell to the ground Dimaria and Wahl both looked over in shock to recognize the long lost brother of their former partner, Zeref.

Dimaria's look then changed back to her passive grin, but she spoke with weight on her words. "Oh, so it's _you_ …"

She laughed without raising the sound of her voice and snapped at her ally. "Come on, _The Dragon_ wouldn't want us to take _him_ out. We'll have to come back later for the Heartfilia man…"

The town let them go since they technically didn't commit a crime during the whole ordeal, but as they rode off the entire crowd ran over to Natsu and lifted him up high into the air.

Despite his heroic victory, Natsu felt like a failure. As they let him down, they all circled the still breathing Gildarts and the woefully sobbing Cana beside him.

Natsu crouched over to talk to his foster father's side. "DAD!"

As Natsu grabbed his hand, Gildarts laughed slowly. "Hey, it's my two favorite people. I'm glad you guys could see your old man get knocked on his ass…" Despite the terminal circumstances Gildarts still tried to get them to laugh.

Cana sobbed as she smiled. "Nah, you're good! You can get up!"

As she continued, the local nurse and eldest villager, Porlyusca ran over to greet the scene with her 13 year old granddaughter and nurse-in-training, Wendy Marvell.

"Oh, N-Natsu, Cana! I-I'm sooo sorry!" The blue haired Wendy began to cry as she dropped her tool kit and couldn't bear to look at the dying Marshal.

Porlyusca snapped back at her assistant. "Calm down, child! You're not helping…" The head nurse went to continue with her scolding, but stopped as she finished her examination.

"I'm sorry, but the bullet is broken up far too much, and it is too deep to remove." She also noticed he was losing a very heavy amount of blood, and because it was far too much to stop she decided to let the scene speak for itself.

Natsu and Cana cried out but Gildarts grabbed their hands. "Hey, hey relax. You'll both be fine."

He then looked to Natsu. "Hey kid, I'm really glad I go to meet you that day seven years ago, and I gotta say. I've loved you like a _real_ son the whole time."

Natsu tried to hold his tears, but couldn't. "Y-Yea, well I've loved you like a dad… _dad_."

Gildarts laughed and then looked over to Cana. "Sweetie, I love you so much. And your mother would be so proud to see what a beautiful woman you've grown up to be."

Cana began to sob even more. "I love you too, d-daddy…" She then grabbed his hand and held it to her heart.

Then the scene grew quiet as Gildarts left with on final word.

"Natsu, remind me what your brother's last words were…?"

Natsu wiped away his tears and clenched his foster father's pistol without saying a word.

" _Just keep your hand on that gun._ "

Then, Gildarts Clive passed away right in the streets of Magnolia with his two children tightly holding his hands.

Cana then let out a roaring cry as she leaned over to hug Natsu in a tight embrace, and he began to tear up even more as he accepted the gesture.

As the entire town looked on with heavy hearts, two mysterious figures stood in the back with serious faces.

"Wow. He's pretty fast with a gun." said the first person with great interest. He had a brown poncho and a short haircut of black spiky hair.

His beautiful green-haired counterpart in a brown cowboy hat then replied. "Yea, although now I think it's time for some _real_ training…"

* * *

 **Well...I just killed Gildarts. Probably the _strangest_ thing I've ever written in a fan fic so far..but it happened.**

 ** _Two mysterious figures_...I wonder who they are? Chapter 5 tomorrow!**


	5. Chapter 5-The Kid with a Gun

**Author's Note: Hello! I'm out of college classes for a day or two so this is a happy day! They will start up again very soon (thanks to two ridiculous projects) but o well, I'm a big kid. Here is chapter 5 hope you enjoy!**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail._**

* * *

Chapter Five - The Kid with a Gun

* * *

Natsu sat on his bed with a heavy heart. The whole town had just returned from the funeral of his foster father, Gildarts Clive and now there was a dreadful cloud of sadness hovering over the entire town.

Despite this everyone in the village felt the need to cheer on Natsu after beating that outlaw the other day. This confused him, because Natsu had no idea what was so "heroic" about killing another man.

After the funeral, the town lawyer came over to address the concern of Gildarts's estate, and the contents of his last will & testament.

Apparently Cana had been awarded his old home back on the east coast, because he didn't want his daughter to be stuck in the wilderness forever. Natsu on the other hand was given all of his property in Magnolia, but his father also left him an extra set of instructions and suggested that he needed to sell the land and leave the town to join his sister out east.

In addition, Gildarts also had one last object to hand over to Natsu. He would have done it before, but the object came from the scene of a crime, and Gildarts wasn't legally allowed to relieve it over to a former convicted criminal at the time.

He gave Natsu his brother Zeref's old black and silver revolver.

Although Natsu would have preferred to have his brother or dad over a gun, he appreciated the gesture and kept it on his waste from then on.

As he finished with his reflection Natsu wondered into the living room to greet his sister, Cana. She had all of her bags pack up tight and wore her travelling cloths as she opened the door.

Natsu looked on with shock. "You're actually leaving?!"

Cana stopped and turned to greet her brother. "Natsu…I didn't want you to see me go."

They paused and absorbed the silence before she finished with her explanation.

"Look, I'm not going just to claim that house. I'm headed to the capital city and demanding that justice be brought to this town. I'm gonna ask them to send reinforcements and let them know a brave marshal was killed in the line of duty."

Natsu sighed and stood tall. "Are you gonna be okay, _alone_?" he said with nurturing concern.

She laughed and threw her bags down, and as Natsu stopped to look at her Cana leaned in to give him one last hug. "You know this isn't the last we'll be seeing each other. We're both strong, and I have better faith in you to hold down the fort while I'm gone."

He nodded and smiled. "Give 'em hell, Cana."

She chuckled and nodded back. "When it's all said and done, come pay me a visit. That is if I'm not back here, first."

The, Cana left the house and walked off to the train station, and Natsu sat there and took in the new idea of living alone.

He would have gone back to his room, but not long after Cana's departure Natsu heard a knock from outside the door and jumped over to open it.

"Hello…?" Natsu stood there with an angry expression as two mysterious figures stood on the porch.

"Whoa, it's the Salamander!" The man to the left spoke first. He wore a flowing brown poncho with slightly darker brown pants, and his hair was black and spike upwards. "The name's Alzack Connell, and this here's my partner, Bisca."

The green haired beauty to his other side tipped her brown cowboy hat and continued. "We came from a few towns over and stopped in on our way further west. We saw what happened yesterday. You're pretty quick with a gun, kid."

Natsu looked even angrier at the fact they had brought up the even yet again. "Look, I don't know who you are or what you saw, but my dad died out there. I'd rather not talk about it anymore."

He went to slam the door shut but Alzack stepped in front of it and smiled. "Hey now, we worked with your father."

"Huh!?" Natsu gasped, and waited for them to explain.

"Yep, we came straight from the capital not too long ago. We're what you call 'Roaming Marshals.' We wonder around and monitor all the towns in this side of the country to keep an eye out for law breakers. Gildarts was a co-worker, and he was hands down the best guy to work with in the area." Bisca explained as Natsu realized these were co-workers of his deceased foster father.

Alzack then opened the door again and smiled. "Yea, and I know for a fact that any son of Gildarts wouldn't just throw away a chance to take revenge. You do know you saved the town yesterday, right?"

Natsu paused again. "Yea I guess so…I've only ever shot a gun like two times."

Bisca laughed. "Well your shot said otherwise. But your draw _could_ use some work. And your hand could be a bit less wobbly…"

Natsu snapped back. "What are you, my trainer?"

The two Marshals laughed as the man spoke first. "Actually, we can be…"

* * *

Over the next few days, Bisca and Alzack trained Natsu in every aspect of dueling and gun firing. He became familiar with all sorts of rifles, pistols, and even got better at his quick draw. That being said, before he got to try anything fancy, he needed to pass one little accuracy test.

"Come on we've been out here for hours! And the damn target is too far away!" Natsu complained with anger as he, Bisca and Alzack stood alone in a large desert plain. They all looked on as far off in the distance a large wooden statue could be seen towering over the sands.

Alzack laughed as he stood alone with Natsu. "Right, but that target is pretty big. All's we ask is that you just _try_ to hit it."

Natsu went to shoot but couldn't. "Nope. I'm tellin' ya it ain't…"

*BANG*

Alzack didn't even look as he shot out a bullet from his own magnum pistol. Natsu however kept his eyes right on the wooden target as he then saw a cloud of dust fly up as a result of the bullet landing in the wood.

Natsu spat with anger. "Yea, I'd like to see you do that…"

*BANG*

"…twice." Natsu scratched his head with confusion. "I don't get it. How can you just…?"

*BANG*

Back much further away and standing atop a small look-out perch, Bisca shot off her impressive sharp-shooting rifle as she hit the target dead on, and interrupted Natsu in the process.

"OH COME ON!" Natsu yelled out as Bisca waved over with a cheeky smile.

"Sorry, I haven't gone through remedial sharp-shooting in a while. It takes me back…"

Natsu growled. "Remedial sharp-shooting? Look I know you guys are good at this stuff, but don't ya think you may be _too_ good to teach me anything?"

Alzack shook his head and grinned as he looked right at Natsu. "That doesn't make sense. Plus, I don't know how to answer that. I need to see you hit that target first…"

Natsu continued to growl and grabbed his black revolver from his waste. He then lifted it up and shot the target from all the way across the field.

"Whoa that was awesome!" He began to cheer and tried to do it again, but as he did it the gun made a weird clicking noise and never fired a bullet.

"Huh, that's strange…" Natsu scratched his head and looked down the front barrel.

Alzack yelled out and grabbed the gun. "NO YOU IDIOT!"

As the black haired Marshal took the pistol he sighed and looked over to Bisca, who had just made it back from her perch. "I think we need to get this kid some more ammo...and maybe an eye patch while we're at it."

* * *

The next day, Bisca and Alzack decided to take Natsu on over to Acalypha Town in the near eastern desert. Located only 30 miles away from Magnolia, Acalypha was at the center of an old rail road hub that originally stood to bring new traffic into the western deserts. Eventually all that traffic will be brought over to Magnolia once it's rail road is completed, but for now Acalypha would bask in its title of _Merchant Capital of the West_.

As they arrived in town by horse (because Natsu complained about his weak stomach, and something that involved riding on trains) they passed several large shops and boutiques, and all the buildings looked to be in much better condition than the ones in Magnolia.

"Wow, this place has gotten pretty fancy! I haven't been here in like 8 years!" Natsu reminisced from the days of his life as a Spriggan outlaw and chose to keep quiet before they asked any more questions.

Bisca laughed. "Yea, this town sure grew fast. They have anything you could ever want out in the west; especially when it comes to weapons and ammunition."

Alsack laughed as well. "Yea, but before we get too carried away let's stop off at the bank first and cash in our last reward."

They then arrived to the local _Love and Lucky_ Town Bank to turn in a military check from their last mission. As they waited in line, Natsu began to look around at the strange and busy crowd.

"Boy there sure are a lot of people here…" He became rather uncomfortable as even more people swelled into the building.

He then went to face forward, and noticed a strange man standing in the front of the line. He had a tall muscular body wrapped away in a large black desert poncho, and he also had a large hat over his head coupled with a dark black bandanna over his face.

As he got up to the desk the strange man tried speaking to the cashier with his unusually raspy voice.

"Greetings sir! Welcome to _Love and Lucky_!" The attendant spoke before the strange man could startup, but he quickly replied with anger.

"Yes…well, greetings to you too." There was a weird ambiance about his presence as he continued. "I hope you're all stock up with the appropriate funds…?"

The bank clerk then smiled. "Oh don't worry, I'm sure we'll be able to match your withdraw request perfectly!"

The odd man smiled. "If you insist."

Then, Natsu went to listen in, but was stopped as a small cloaked man with a stalky figure and purple skin bumped into him. He also had trimmed blonde hair and a scowling smile on his face.

Natsu returned a scowl as the short man laughed. "Watch it, kid. You don't know what's about to go down…"

Natsu looked puzzled but then noticed the small purple man and three other figures then joined the tall man at the desk. The pink haired boy then realized what was about to happen and pulled out his gun.

"Hold it right there, you creeps!"

The room let out a loud gasp and Bisca and Alzack turned around with frantic looks on their faces as they both yelled out simultaneously.

"Natsu, what are you doing!?"

Natsu continued with a serious expression. "These guys are trying to rob the bank!"

The four smaller figures began to laugh as the tall man joined in. "Yes, well aren't you one to jump to conclusions."

Then a girl with long flowing red hair and a wicked look in her eyes began to giggle. "So, Master Alexi, how should we carry out with our withdraw?"

The lead man turned around and removed his disguise, and as it came off he pulled out his own gun.

"We'll just have to go with _Plan B_."

As he finished the others removed their cloaks and pulled out their own guns. Then a frail and scary looking man with snake-like eyes began to hiss at the clerks while laughing.

"So, who wants to start?" He held out his gun towards the cashiers as they all shrieked with fear.

Natsu then yelled out with anger as the robbers ignored his outcry. "HEY WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA!? I SAID HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

Bisca and Alzack then laughed and removed their own guns before taking the scene. "Relax everyone, we're Federal Marshals. And we'd like to place you all under arrest!"

The tension grew higher as the man now known as Alexi laughed. "You stupid Marshals can be such a nuisance. It's a good thing those Spriggans are dropping you all like flies…"

Natsu gasped as he realized what the man was referring to. He also looked on as he began to recognize who this _Alexi_ man actually was.

"Hold on. I KNOW YOU! You're the old Sheriff of Magnolia, _Ivan Dreyor_!...the leader of the _Raven Tail Gang_!"

Bisca and Alzck looked on with shock as Alexi, now _Ivan Dreyor_ began to laugh. "Well, aren't you a smart little boy. You must be that Salamander from Magnolia? It's a shame your new Sheriff couldn't protect that _Marshal_ …"

Natsu growled. "That Sheriff's your son, you _bastard_." He then sighed as he holstered his gun. "Look, why don't the two of use take this outside. I'm dying to see how scary you really are."

The other Ravens laughed as their leader holstered his own weapon. "So, the little punk wants to take me on? Fine by me; let's take a walk outside…"

* * *

 **So it was Bisca and Alzack, Of course! I would never have a FT western without those two. And since this _is_ a western about a young man, he'll obviously need lessons in shooting guns, so Bisca and Alzack fit perfectly. **

**Ivan has returned, and Natsu's challenged him to a duel!**

* * *

 ******* **(EDIT:)*****

 **Apologies, but I remembered I will not be posting _Thursday, November 26_ due to it being Thanksgiving here in the US. I understand this is not an international holiday so I apologize to anyone reading from outside the States. However I must go ahead and say that I will be with my family for the duration of the day. Either way enjoy your Thursday! (and Happy Thanksgiving if you are also celebrating!)**

 **Please look out Friday, November the 27th for chapter 6.**


	6. Chapter 6-A Rising Star

**Author's Note: Hello! I apologize for the one-day hiatus, but I was celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. That being said...**

 **It's now Black Friday (which I hate), but more importantly it is officially time for Christmas! (Which I love!)**

 **I am very excited for the holiday season, and I am also excited to announce that I plan on releasing a _12-part Fairy Tail Christmas_ special story starting on December 13th (conveniently the day after my classes end) This means the 12 days will run right to Christmas eve, so I won't have to post anything on the actual 25th of December (because I will probably not be on the computer that day, lol.) So keep an eye out for that! Now...back to this story!**

 **Natsu vs. Ivan. Showtime.**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail._**

* * *

Chapter Six - A Rising Star

* * *

Natsu and Ivan took their places in the empty streets of Acalypha. The whole town cleared out and waited on the fringes of the buildings and porches as the two men sat in wait.

The other members of _Raven Tail_ stopped and laughed as they stood behind their leader, and Bisca and Alzack stayed standing right in front of the door way of the bank.

Bisca spoke up first. "Man, I hope the idiot knows what he's doing."

Alzack then let out a smirk. "Ah, he's Gildarts's boy. He'll be fine."

The whole crowd waited in anticipation as the two gunslingers stood in dead silence.

Ivan was the first to break it. "I hope you're ready, you little brat!"

Natsu smiled. "Don't worry about me; _I'm all fired up_."

They continued to stare blankly at each other before Natsu progressed first.

Then Natsu smirked as he made his move, and quickly grabbed his pistol while smiling as he pulled the trigger.

"BAM! I GOT…"

He stopped as he heard another dry-fire noise coming from his gun, and as it happened he gasped. "MAN, WHAT THE HELL!?"

Bisca and Alzack both collectively shouted with anger. "HE NEVER GOT ANY AMMO!"

Ivan nearly fell over while laughing. "AHhahahaha! This little punk shows up for a gun fight and can't even bring his bullets! AHahahahaha!"

He then grinned as he drew his gun and clicked back the lever. "Say your prayers, kid."

Natsu looked on with anger before he stopped to smile, and clicked is barrel over one notch. "Oh wait, wrong chamber."

*BANG*

Natsu let off the fastest shot he had ever released and sent it right into the gun hand of Ivan Dreyor.

"AGHHH!" The _Raven Tail_ leader let out a painful yell as he dropped his gun and held his now bloody mess of a hand while falling to the ground in defeat.

"YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT!" He then snapped at his Raven cronies to join in, but not before Bisca let off a warning shot right before they all stepped forward.

"Just stay put guys, we don't want you goin' nowhere."

Alzack then pulled out his pistols and stood right behind the other Ravens. "Now, let's go to the Acalypha Sheriff's Office and have us a little chat…"

* * *

Later, after a quick meeting with both the press and sheriff's offices Natsu, Bisca and Alzack all road back to Magnolia together on three horses as they left Acalypha.

As they road Alzack let out a large laugh.

"I can't believe you shot the wrong chamber, Natsu!" He slapped his knee as Bisca joined in with a giggle of her own.

Natsu frowned and turned away. "Yea well, it wasn't my fault you guys were too cheap to wait until _after_ the bank trip to buy me more ammo."

Bisca waved it off. "Ah don't worry about it. The local papers won't even mention it after they go on about that little "hero" stunt you just pulled."

Alzack then continued to laugh. "Yea, I imagine Magnolia will have a little party for you after your _second_ save in a row. You may even make a big name for yourself."

Natsu smiled and shook his hands. "Nah, I'm just some rail worker who knows how to shoot."

Bisca then laughed too. "I don't know, with that kinda record under your belt you may be able to bring in all the fame, especially with the ladies…"

Alzack then grinned at that comment. "Oh yea, there's no doubt you have a girl on your mind back in Magnolia."

Natsu scowled and fell behind in the ride. "Eh, I wouldn't say that…"

Bisca giggled. "Ah, he's lying. Well whoever the lucky lady is she'll be head over heels after she hears about this."

Nasu then sighed as he looked off into the distance and noticed an empty rail road track heading west. "Ha, yea whatever…"

* * *

After a day had passed it turns out that Bisca and Alzack were right. The Town of Magnolia _had_ heard about Natsu's heroic bravery in Acalypha, and they all decided to hold a little banquet ball in his honor.

The Town Hall was roaring and everyone cheered the name of "Salamander" as they all danced and drank the night away.

Natsu sat at a table with Gray and Gajeel as they both laughed and patted him on the back.

Gray spoke first. "Wow, it looks like we have a hero in our group, now. Maybe you can go to the rail office and get use all new wages!"

Gajeel rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Yea, whatever. Salamander just want's a little glamor for himself, is all."

Natsu waved it off. "Ah, shut up guys. Bisca and Alzack were just tryin' to teach me how to shoot, and we just happened to be in Acalypha during the robbery."

He then went to take a drink, but realized it cup was once again empty. "Ugh, I'll be right back."

Natsu stood up and left for the bar, but as he did he was greeted by both the Mayor and Sheriff of Magnolia.

He then laughed after having a few drinks. "Oh, so now the _big guy's_ wanna say congrats?"

Laxus rolled his eyes as his grandfather Makarov continued. "Natsu, we heard the gang you faced in Acalyha was _Raven Tail_."

Natsu thought about that for a moment. "Yea? So what?"

Laxus spat out an answer before his grandfather could reply. "So what? Their leader used to be this town's Sheriff, you idiot."

Laxus never forgave his father for what he did. After trying to fix the local bank to favor his wallet, the people of Magnolia decided it was time for a new Sheriff, and Laxus seemed to be there guy.

Despite this, the son of the _Raven Tail_ leader still felt uneasy when it came time to perform his _Sheriff Duties_. He didn't really have a steady grasp on the whole "protection" thing, and didn't like how Natsu stole the show the other day.

Natsu then rolled his eyes and walked away. "Ah, that doesn't matter now! He's locked up in Acalypha!" He then walked off with a care free expression as Laxus looked down at his grandfather.

"Tsk, I hope you know what you're doing gramps. You're rail road workers seem to be stepping out of bounds."

Natsu ignored their follow up and stumbled over to the make shift bar at the back of the room, and right then he noticed they were really busy.

"Ugh, hey Mira can't I get a little help, here?" He laughed as he showed her a drunken toothy grin.

Mira giggled. "Natsu! Just go back in the back and help yourself! All the kegs are tapped in the storage room."

Natsu nodded with a cocky grin and walked around the bar. "Well alright then!"

He then busted through the doors and came across 12 whole wooden barrels full of a variety of different choices of alcoholic beverages.

He scratched his head in wonder. "Geeze, we may not have a lot gold or anything, but this town sure is rich when it comes to booze…"

Natsu then began to pace back and forth between the barrels as he made his decision, and just as he found a nice red ale sitting at the back corner, the door to the tap room opened up.

"Natsu!"

He jumped up and noticed Mira's younger sister Lisanna had just come through with a great big smile on her face.

Despite being younger than Mira she was actually the same age as Natsu, 17; and she had become very close to the rail worker over his seven year tenure in Magnolia.

He smiled and jumped up with enthusiasm. "Oh, hey Lisanna! I was wondering where you went off to!"

Lisanna giggled and showed a little blush. "Awe, well aren't you sweet. Listen, I never got to tell you congrats on your big rescue in Acalypha! That whole story sounded really scary!"

Natsu laughed aloud and waved his hand. "Ah, it was nothing; those losers didn't know what was coming to 'em."

Lisanna then smiled again and leaned up against one of the barrels. "Oh, quit being modest, Natsu."

She went to continue but noticed an odd marking through the sleeve of his right shirt. "Hey, what's that on your arm? I didn't know you had tattoos?"

Natsu looked puzzled, but then grabbed his right arm and remembered his old brand mark from when he was a kid. "Oh, this?"

He then unraveled his muffler from his neck and unbuttoned his shirt and rolled down the right side to show her the burned piece of skin on his upper right arm. "I uh, had a bad run in with some nasties as a kid…don't worry they didn't do anything else to me. Hehe."

Although Lisanna assumed she knew everything about Natsu, it seems that she had never noticed his old brand marking before. The white haired beauty first looked horrified at the thought of a little Natsu being roughed up by bandits, but quickly blushed as she then noticed her close friend was now shirtless.

"Oh, well that's good…say, you're friends with Gray and Gajeel right?"

"Yea sure, you can call those guys friends." Natsu finished putting his shirt and scarf back on and took a sip from his ale, and as he did the pink haired fool tried to gain focus in his blurry vision.

Lisanna smiled as she continued. "Just wondering. I always see them with Levy and Juvia, but you don't really seem bothered to be with them…"

Natsu then became slightly uncomfortable. "What's you point…?"

Lisanna then stepped up and grabbed both of his hands. "Natsu, you're a good looking guy! I just figured you might get a little lonely once in a while…"

Natsu was now very confused with the whole situation, and Lisanna's beauty didn't help him out of it. She had large blue eyes that looked like the night's sky, and her female figure was highlighted in her beautiful blue gown with white laces all over.

He also knew her since he was ten years old, and he'd be lying if he never _once_ thought about her. That being said he was now 17, and he had other interests _and_ other people on his mind…

Natsu then gulped and continued. "Lisanna, I don't know…" He stopped as the white haired girl leaned in to give him a closer hug, but he back away in an awkward state of confusion.

"Natsu…?" Lisanna was now confused with him.

Natsu stood there and paused as he set his glass down. "Look, it's not you…I just have something else goin' on up here…" He frowned as he gestured towards his head.

Lisanna would have been offended, but she knew him better than most people. She then leaned back and smiled with a sly grin. "Oh Natsu, you like someone _else_ don't you…?"

Natsu immediately turned away. "Agh, that's not it at all!"

Lisanna giggled. "Come on, who is it!? I mean I work at the saloon so I'm bound to know them if they live in town…"

He paused and could answer, and right then she caught the hint.

"Not in town...wait a minute... _NATSU_!" Lisanna jumped over and gave him a big hug, which really made him angry.

" _Gyah!_ I shoulda never went looking for more booze!" He sighed as Lisanna continued to tease him.

"Awe, why didn't you just _say_ so!? I thought I saw you talking to _her_ at that party. I never knew you had a thing for _fancy_ rich girls?" She gave him another wink as he moaned with embarrassment.

Before he could defend his thoughts, Lisanna leaned up and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "You're so adorable, Natsu!" She turned to leave but gave him one last word for thought.

"You should know that she'll be back in town any day now. Her father is on his way home from the tour, and their train comes right through town."

As Lisanna left, Natsu stood there with pure rage.

"Man, can't everyone just leave me alone…?"

* * *

 **Whoa, long chapter. Let's recap.**

 **1.) Natsu saves the day again! Whooo**

 **2.) So I love Natsu's whole story, but I also really like how I was able to create this little _mini-story arc_ for Laxus's character as well. Tell me what you think as his story get's released. **

**3.) Okay, I imagine all the true NaLu fans probably had a mini-heart attack with the cheeky NaLi scene...but it was funny! _Speaking_ of which...**

 **4.) _NaLu._..Na-Lu...Na-stu...Lu-cy...LUCY! Lisanna said _Lucy's_ coming back to town! I hope she'll be okay with Natsu's "rough" new lifestyle.**

 **Chapter 7 tomorrow!**


	7. Chapter 7-Not Again

**Author's Note: Hello, Here is chapter 7! I've noticed that in most of my stories I always make note of my favorite chapter, and although I honestly may not be able to decide one for this story, this is probably the closest one.**

 **Please Enjoy!**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_**

* * *

Chapter Seven - Not Again...

* * *

The next day rolled around and the sun over Magnolia was out brighter than ever. Despite the bright and sunny day some of the town's folk were still recovering after attending Natsu's celebration dinner from the night before.

Either way, not every business had the option of closing for the day. Once such office was the train station located at the north end of town, and today things would be particularly heavy for this bureau.

Arriving right at the break of day was none other than the office's cross country manager, Jude Heartfilia, and with him was his beautiful daughter Lucy. He had on a very similar suit from before with a blue tie while she had on a powder blue and white dress this time around. The father-daughter duo began walking through town as they both noticed a different feeling in the air of Magnolia.

Jude looked very puzzled as he gaged the scene. "Well, this town is awfully different from when we last arrived here. I wonder why…?"

Lucy looked puzzled too, and before her father turned around she stopped a local paper boy as he walked down the street.

"Excuse me, but can I buy one of those papers off of you?" She gave him a quick smile and provided a generous payment.

"Anything for you, ma'am!" The little boy smiled and willingly handed over his top paper.

"Thanks!" She giggled and took the large local newspaper and unfolded it for a quick read.

 **"Local Hero Natsu the 'Salamander' Saves Bank in Acalypha: Town Rejoices!"**

 _"Oh, I should have known."_ Lucy collected the headline and let out a quick blush just as she ditched the paper before her father caught her. They had both heard about the incident in Acalypha, but Lucy chose to sit on the information specifically regarding her old friend for the time being.

Jude then looked back to his daughter soon after she got rid of the paper. He then noticed she had a great big smile on her face and began to twirl her umbrella around while also humming some random tune.

He looked perplexed. "Well, you're awfully giddy today. I couldn't even get you to smile once during the last few stops."

Lucy beamed with joy as she stopped humming. "I don't know, this town is just so cute to me. I _would_ like to see more of it this time around…"

Without sharing the news of the "local hero" with her father, they both made way for the very large and very busy Magnolia Bank. Jude apparently had to pick up a large amount of funds from the local bank in order to bring it back to the east coast, and he soon realized that Magnolia ran a pretty tight ship of security.

As they stepped inside he pondered to himself yet again. "Hmm, they seem to be on the ball, here. I guess news from that local town scared them into shape." He then walked forward as he made his way for the desk. "Lucy, wait here for a moment while I go discuss the funds."

Lucy sighed with dissatisfaction. "Ugh…yes, father." and as he left for the clerk, Lucy stood alone with a dismal expression on her face.

Despite her little pout, Lucy then turned around to see the door open, and in walked her familiar friend Natsu as he looked down at his empty wallet and began to curse under his breath.

Lucy immediately giggled and let out a soft smile as she waved her hand in his direction. "Hey _you_!"

Natsu jumped in shock and looked up to see Lucy waving from inside the bank. He then smiled widely as he made his way over.

"Oh hey, Lucy! Long time no see!" He gave her a familiar toothy grin as she beamed right back.

Lucy spoke up next. "I know! I've been all over this desert and it seems like this is the only town fit for me. The people here are just so lively!"

She then remembered how the place appeared to be a ghost town after their big party last night. "Eh, well they were last time I was here..."

The blonde heiress then smiled and looked his way as she noticed a brand new black and silver gun hiding on his belt. "Besides, I here there's a _local hero_ on the loose who keeps taking down all sorts of outlaws...?"

"Yea, this guy sure seems legit. Hehe…" Natsu gulped and looked nervous as he tried to cover his pistol. He wasn't comfortable with revealing the fact that he had shot two men in the past week and killed one of them in battle, but he smiled anyway and held his right hand behind his head.

Lucy's face turned a bright shade of red as soon as she caught his lie. "Well whoever he is I bet he's _pretty brave_."

Natsu then noticed Lucy began to blush and fan herself in a joking manor, but either way he decided on using this to throw the conversation back on her. "Heh, is that so? Well now it's all starting to make sense...No wonder you like the west so much!"

"Eh!?" Now, it was Lucy who looked on with embarrassment.

Although she lived a life of pampered joy, Lucy never truly enjoyed any of the people she met back home. She especially disliked all the men her father forced on her for business reasons, and never asked her friends to hook her up with anyone they knew.

Deep down Lucy just never really knew how to handle boys before. Because of that she turned away from Natsu in discomfort and tried to keep her smile.

"No, I'm not like that! I promise!" Lucy then tried to wave the remark away, but Natsu laughed.

"Ah, it's no big deal, Lucy. Everyone has their own little secrets. Hehe." He rubbed his head and smiled as she looked back with discomfort.

"Yea haha, _secret_ …" As Lucy finished with her awkward laugh her father Jude came back over to their conversation.

"Well what a nerve! I understand if it's a large money order but I'm in a hurry. Lucy, the clerk said we would have to wait until…Oh what do we have _here_?" Jude looked on with discontent as Lucy stood there with an awkward Natsu looking up at him.

Lucy beamed and grabbed Natsu by the arm to pull him closer as she smiled. "Oh, Daddy this is Natsu! He's the boy I met the other day at the party!"

Natsu would have thought about the fact that Lucy was now tightly holding his arm; but he was too busy shaking with fear, and tried to keep his cool for the sake of both his town and self-employment. "It's nice to meet you… _sir_."

Jude looked down as Natsu showed him a scared smile. "Hmm, _Natsu_. Where have I heard that name before…?"

Suddenly Jude's memory seemed to click and his expression changed from a passive frown to a hardened glare. " _Natsu_ …"

Unfortunately Jude had to abruptly stop his comment in mid-sentence.

Natsu and Lucy both looked confused, and Lucy spoke first. "Um, daddy?"

Natsu went to ask a question but then noticed Jude closed his eyes and began to look very angry. The pink haired boy also saw a person standing behind Jude with their hand up behind the wealthy patriarch's back; only the hand was hidden under a poncho.

"Well, well. _Heartfilia_ has finally come to town." The mysterious figure laughed as he whispered over to Jude's ear.

Lucy was having a hard time collecting the scene as Natsu looked slightly angry.

"No way…"

Then they all turned around as another person, a _woman_ wondered into the bank. This figure also had a bandanna over her face but she quickly removed it as she entered the building.

"No way…" The mysterious green haired woman echoed that thought as she saw Natsu standing in the bank with the Heartfilias.

Standing in the doorway was none other than _Brandish the D_ _emolisher_ , the former member of his brother's gang and current member of the _Spriggan 12_.

Natsu didn't ever want to see her face again. Out of all the Spriggans she left him the most conflicted of all due to her odd but caring nature during the shootout seven years ago.

Despite this, Natsu still knew an enemy when he saw one. "What are _you_ doing here?"

Before Brandish could answer Natsu pulled out his brother's black and silver revolver (this time it was fully loaded.)

Jude looked on with shock, and his daughter gasped with surprise in her voice as Natsu stood face to face with Brandish.

The Spriggan sharp-shooter didn't want to believe it, but without any choice she had to pull her own gun out. "Look, you know why we're here…"

Natsu spat on the ground and kept the fire in his eyes. "I don't care. You're not hurtin' him."

Jude snapped his head down to look at Natsu, and Lucy looked like she was almost ready to faint. Meanwhile the other Spriggan began to laugh as he now recognized who the pink haired boy was.

"Ah the little kid has spunk. Not anything like…"

"SHUT UP, _AJEEL!_ " Brandish clearly read the scene and realized that the two Heartfilia's didn't know about Natsu's rugged past. So she decided to spare him this one time, and chose to hide his true identity.

Either way, the rising hot-shot on the Spriggan 12, _Ajeel the Desert King_ stood with his dark magnum held right into Jude's waste. "Ya know this is getting pretty boring. Let's just finish this already."

Natsu turned his head to address Ajeel, but kept his pistol locked on Brandish. "Didn't you hear me? You guys aren't doing anything with him!"

Brandish bit her lip and held her gun high, and then she pulled back on the hammer as she aimed it back at Natsu. "Kid, you don't really have a choice."

Lucy looked petrified as she watched the two gunmen hold their own in a standoff. She was normally more out spoken in tense situations, but she had never experienced _anything_ like this before.

At the same time Natsu knew he was out gunned, but as he looked away from Brandish, Sheriff Laxus Dreyor caught his eye as he was walking care freely down the street just behind the female Spriggan's shoulder.

Natsu laughed as he smiled and pulled the trigger. "I wouldn't say that just yet."

He released his shot, and the bullet sailed passed Brandish's head and out the open window. It appeared to bounce off the ground in the middle of the dirt road, but after that no one could hear where it went.

Brandish on the other hand used her shot to shoot the gun right out of Natsu's hand. He was alright, but he jerked back and stood in front of Jude and Lucy.

Lucy took her hands away from her mouth and ran up to check Natsu's hand, and as he waved her off Ajeel let out a loud laugh without firing his gun.

"Well, that settles it! Kid, you suck pretty hard, and we're gonna go ahead and escort our new friend here out of town!" Ajeel then slowly walked around Natsu and Lucy and made his way for the exit.

As he made it there; he, Brandish and a content Jude stopped as they all turned around slowly and stepped backwards for the doorway.

Lucy looked horrified and stepped in front of him. "STOP IT YOU COWARD! LET HIM GO!"

Natsu scowled and used her scared yet passionate expression to motivate his next move. He then lunged forward in a hard sprint to tackle Ajeel, but sadly he was stopped as Ajeel moved his gun to point it right in his face.

Wahl pointed his gun at Natsu and laughed as he slowly began to walk backwards, all while he held Jude in his other hand. "Well kid, looks like you just made the _wrong move_ …"

*Click*

"Yea? Well so did you."

Ajeel turned around to find _Sheriff Laxus_ holding a gun to the Spriggan's head as he grinned with satisfaction. Brandish then turned as well only to find Freed and Bickslow standing behind them with two guns aimed on their backs, as well.

Laxus tipped his beige cowboy hat and smiled. "Thanks for that signal, Natsu."

Natsu laughed, and Lucy sighed with relief as Ajeel had no choice but to release her father.

Lucy ran in for a hug, and Jude took her right into his arms and began to smile. "Are you alright, Lucy?"

She smiled brightly. "Dad, I'm fine! Are _you_ going to be okay?"

Jude laughed as he released the hug. "HA! You think that's the first person who's held a gun up to me?"

Laxus then laughed at that comment and took the Spriggans away, and as they left Brandish's eyes never left Natsu's, and vice-versa.

Natsu's gaze was quickly interrupted as Lucy jumped over and wrapped him up in a great big hug.

"NATSU THANK YOU _SO_ MUCH! That was really brave!"

The pink haired hero showed her his usual toothy grin as he scratched the back of his head. "It was? I just thought I missed my shot."

Knowing he didn't actually miss, Jude Hearfilia let out a small and rare smile while laughing. "Well, either way I owe you _something_ as a reward, son. Thank you for saving me just now." He then pulled out his pocket book. "Now, how's _half a million_ Jewell sound?"

Natsu shook his head and waved the pocket book away. "Nah, no money for me."

Lucy beamed and wouldn't take no for an answer. "How about _a million_!? Nastu, please! You deserved it!"

Both Heartfilias stood in wait as Natsu stopped to weigh his options, yet as they sat there the pink haired boy then began to think about Lucy's wish the last time he met her.

 _"_ _I'd really like to see the whole town for myself! Oh well, maybe some other time..."_

Natsu then stopped and let out a little laugh as he looked right at Lucy.

"How's about I take you around tonight and show you the town, like you wanted?"

Jude was taken away by the request as he paused and looked down to his daughter, and Lucy began to turn a very bright shade of red as her heart stopped. "Oh, w-well yea that sounds amazing, but daddy…"

Jude sighed as he rolled his eyes and put his pocket book away. "Very well, _Natsu_ is it? I suppose I'll let you show my little Lucy around the town for one _small_ evening."

The 17 year old blonde daughter rolled her eyes and glared at her father. "Dad, I'm not _Little Lucy_ anymore, and I don't have to let you decide..."

Natsu began to laugh, which mad Lucy blush even more. "Little, big who cares?! I'll see you tonight!" He then turned around and strolled out of the bank, leaving both Heartfilia's there in an awkward silence.

Jude looked down at his uncomfortable daughter and sighed. "Lucy, I understand if you didn't what to hurt his feelings. You can tell him _no_ later tonight if you'd li…"

"NO!"

Lucy let out a quick gasp but caught herself before she continued. "...Ahem, sorry. He said he wants to go out and show me the town. I think it would be better just to let him do it…"

Despite her whirling head of emotions Lucy smiled softly and held her hand up to feel her rapid heart begin to beat. Then she thought to herself in confusion.

" _I just hope I'm ready…_ "

As the scene ended, Natsu was seen strolling along the street in a casual whistle as he headed back to his house. However before he got home he noticed something very _off_ about his request, and stopped to shake his head.

"Wait! I DON'T KNOW _ANYTHING_ ABOUT GIRLS!?"

* * *

 **Uh-oh, Natsu has to take a girl out. I hope Lucy enjoys his home town! Chapter 8 tomorrow!**


	8. Chapter 8-Miss Heartfilia

**Author's Note: Hello, here is chapter 8! This is it, the little _date night_ for Natsu and Lucy. Hopefully it isn't too long of a chapter for you guys (I think it's just barely the longest so far!)**

 **(Also, there are several "Easter eggs" from the real _Fairy Tail_ spotted throughout this chapter. See If you can find them!)**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_.**

* * *

Chapter Eight - Miss Heartfilia

* * *

*KNOCK-KNOCK* "LUCY? Hurry up in there!"

Jude lightly pounded on the door of the bathroom inside their luxurious presidential suite. They had the entire week reserved here at the _Vermilion Hotel_ , and Jude was beginning to get rather frustrated with his daughter's obnoxiously long bathroom time before her big… _date_?

"Honestly, the boy is just a simple rail worker. I'm sure he won't even notice what you're wear…" He paused and stopped as she finished up and came through the door. The troop of female servants followed her out with giggles as they left the room for their own suites.

Lucy had on a very similar dress that she wore for their first day in Magnolia, only this one was a much softer shade of pink and it really brought out her large brown eyes and golden blonde hair, which was also tide back in a bun that left a few strands of bangs over her face.

Jude stopped and smiled. "Well, you look very pretty tonight, Lucy…"

Lucy frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's nothing." Jude sat down at the end of his bed and waited as she joined him. "I've just noticed you behave a little differently when you're near this Natsu boy." He had a puzzled look on his face as the name left his tongue.

Lucy smiled and showed off a small flare of red in her cheeks as she sat down next to her father. "Yea I guess so. He's just…not like the boys you introduce to me back home. No offense, _hehe_."

She sighed and quickly thought to herself. " _Great, now I'm starting to laugh like him…_ "

Jude smiled and nodded. "Yes well, I can imagine if this is all very exciting for you, but please be a good dear and use your head. He seems nice, but this _Natsu_ …he just feels a bit _off_."

Lucy rolled her eyes and stood up as she heard the bellhop yell for their names. "Yea, I know he seems a little _clumsy_ , but I like to think of it a 'quirky.'"

She then gave her father a quick peck on the cheek and ran off with a skip in her step as she left the room, and after words Jude sat alone and sighed. "Oh Layla, why did you have to teach her all about _adventure_ …"

As all that was happening Natsu stood inside the large hotel lobby as he waited for his new blonde friend to find him down stairs.

"Huh, this is the first time I've ever been here…" He then stopped as he heard footsteps coming down form the stairs, and turned to see a very beautiful Lucy running down the stair way.

"Lucy! You look… _good_." He had to stop and collect just how pretty she really was.

Likewise, she stopped and looked equally as confused. "Y-yea, you do too…"

He had on a cream colored long sleeved shirt that almost passed for yellow, and he wore it with brown pants and boots to match. He also wore his sleeves rolled up to his forearms and he had his top button undone from his shirt. Finally he also had his trusty white checkered scarf wrapped around his neck.

Lucy was always use to the men who dressed up in fancy black suits and tuxedos for her "dates" back home, but this "rugged look" was all new to her; which made the poor girl very anxious for the night to come.

Natsu went to laugh in order to break the tension, but Jude came down the stairs just in time to add some more on. "Ah, Natsu. I hope you have a nice evening planned for my daughter?"

Lucy looked very angry and held her head down as Natsu chuckled. "Haha you know it! Don't worry Mr. Heart you can count on me to make sure she sees the whole town!"

Jude raised his head up, and Lucy did too, only she had hope fill her eyes while his held discontent.

Jude raised an eyebrow and carried on. "Yes, well enjoy the evening, and be sure to have her back by 10:00 tonight…" He rang out the curfew time as he turned and left for the stairs.

Natsu scratched his head as Lucy grabbed him by the hand. "Come on, I can't wait to see everything!"

* * *

Natsu didn't disappoint. He made sure to show her all the big _and_ little stops around town. Sure Magnolia wasn't very pretty, nor was it big, but it had its own array of shops and boutiques that made the locals happy enough to live there.

He took her into a quaint jewelry store and let her look around. Natsu feared that her _rich blood_ would attract her to a more pricy item on display, but lucky for him Lucy picked out a cheap and modest necklace made from bright blue and jade beads that was crafted by local jewelers.

In fact, Lucy only chose it _because_ it was locally made, and she hoped that it would help her remember the town whenever she had to leave.

After leaving the south part of town, Natsu then mistakenly took her into the _Fairy Tail_ Saloon, which he would soon learn to regret.

The doors swung open as Lucy looked inside with a glowing smile. "WOW, this is soo amazing!"

Natsu chuckled at her excitement. "Well, glad you like it. Welcome to _Fairy Tail_!"

Lucy stopped and giggled. " _Fairy Tail_? I didn't even know fairies _had_ tails…?"

Natsu patted her on the back and directed her forward. "Ah, I guess that's just a mystery then. Let's head on in!"

Lucy beamed with joy as they found a large round table with several other people sitting around it in wait. Lucy was awfully nervous around Natsu's friends but she didn't want it to show.

Gray Fullbuster then let out a small laugh. "Well, Natsu's finally brought himself a guest to our little hang out spot. Nice to meet ya, my name's Gray." He smiled and waved his hand as he sat back in a relaxed posed with Juvia curled up beside him.

The blue haired library aid then tried to smile, even though she didn't want to. "Yes. As _my_ beloved Gray would say it. _Hello_. My name is Juvia."

Lucy laughed and smiled back. "Hi! My name's Lucy. It's nice to meet all of you!"

Levy McGarden sat up from her seat beside Gajeel and replied right back. "HI! My names Levy! I work down at the library. Can I just say that I _love_ your dresses!?" Levy smiled brightly as she observed Lucy's gown of choice this evening.

Lucy smiled back and blushed with the compliment. "Awe, thank you! I was hoping to get a few cloths here while I'm in town. I'm really liking everything I've seen so far!"

Gajeel laughed and grabbed his glass. "Yea, well don't let _Salamander_ buy you anything. I'm sure his taste is pretty lousy." He chuckled as he took a sip of his whiskey.

" _Grr_ , we didn't ask for your lip, Gajeel." Natsu began to growl with anger, which made Lucy giggle yet again.

As the night went on they all laughed and enjoyed their meal while also swapping stories of both the east and the west. In fact everyone but Natsu was super ecstatic to be there, because they always stopped to poke fun at him whenever they had the chance.

Once the dinner wound down, Natsu stood up and grabbed Lucy's hand. "Well, I think I've had enough of your all's crap for the night. If you don't mind I have to finish showing Lucy the rest of the town."

They all chuckled (including Lucy) and Gray spoke up first. "Yea, I hope you stay on course, Natsu…"

Natsu got the joke and didn't appreciate it one bit. He then waited for Lucy to say her good byes before he left.

Lucy smiled with pure joy as she felt she made so many new friends. "It was nice meeting all of you! I hope we get to see each other again."

The two of them left and right away Mirajane the barkeep eavesdropped in on the remaining table and giggled with joy. "Awe, I really think he _loooooves_ her!"

Gajeel chuckled and immediately looked over to Gray. "Yea…So, how fast do ya think he'll…?"

Before he finished Levy jabbed him in the stomach and made him fall out of his chair, which made everyone else in the room laugh hysterically.

* * *

Natsu and Lucy wondered off for quite a ways before they made it in the field outside his lone house on the outskirts of town. They walked arm in arm as Lucy looked up to the sky with a giddy smile on her face and began pointing out at all the stars.

"Look! There's the _Aquarius_ consolation! And that one there is _Canis Minor_! And that one straight ahead is _Leo the Lion_!"

She looked out to the night sky with wide eyes as Natsu chuckled beside her. "Man, you sure know a lot about stars."

She turned and laughed. "Yea, I had a little book with all the names of the heavenly bodies as a kid. I really like _Celestial_ stuff I guess…"

Natsu laughed again. "Oh that's actually pretty awesome! Man, I wish I knew all that 'science-y' crap."

Lucy looked puzzled but still giggled. "Um, I don't think it's actually _science_ , Natsu."

He rolled his eyes and waved it away. "Eh, whatever it's all the same to me. It's not like I can re-…"

Natsu stopped talking as Lucy slowed her walk and asked him a serious question. "Wait, Natsu you don't know how to read?"

Natsu paused and looked kinda confused. "Uh-h, sure I do! Well, not really…look I don't need some smarty-pants telling me…"

Lucy stopped him before he got out of hand. "No, Natsu It's totally fine! I was just curious is all…sorry if that was too personal."

She looked kinda down about her poor choice of words, but Natsu grinned and turned it back on her. "Okay then, _my_ turn for the questions...Why do you like it out here so much?"

Lucy paused as they kept walking again. "U-uh, gee I don't know…I guess I was always just an adventurous kid growing up. My mom always read me bed time stories about pirates and wizards and all sorts of stuff, but I really enjoyed the ones about the cowboys and the west most of all." She then paused and looked away.

"That is before she passed away…right when I turned 10."

Natsu stopped her there. "Man, I'm sorry Lucy. I know how ya feel; my dad just died recently."

Lucy looked up to her new friend with wide open eyes. "Natsu that's awful." She then clutched his arm even tighter and brought him in closer to her side.

The blonde girl then began to blush once again. "O-Oh, wow you're _really_ warm…"

Lucy didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable but she _really_ couldn't let go of his arm.

"Yea, I've always been kinda warm. Here!" He then removed his arm from the loop and put it around her shoulders, making her sink with discomfort.

"Um, gee… _thanks_." She then tried to change the subject. " _So_ , you said that's your house ahead?"

Natsu smiled brightly. "Yep! Come on I'll show ya what it's like inside!"

" _Ugh, Lucy why you have to say that!?_ " Lucy wanted to smack herself for her stupid suggestion, but she didn't want to move her hands out from their crossed position.

They finally made it inside and Natsu closed the door to keep the warm air in.

"Well, this is…my crummy home." He waved his hand around to show her the tidy but dusty four-room shack that sat on the outskirts of town.

Lucy smiled with surprise. "Wow, it's so cozy! Do you live here all by yourself?"

Natsu sighed at the thought of his missing sister and deceased father. "Yea, for now anyway. Why don't ya sit down and I can get us something to drink."

Time passed as Natsu got her a glass of water and showed her to the small couch. As he handed Lucy the glass he noticed she held a rather uncomfortable look on her face, which left him looking concerned.

Natsu then spoke up with his best guess. "Well, I'm sorry there's really nothing else here. If you don't like it I could always take you back to the…"

"No! This is…fine." Lucy may have been completely drowned in confusion, but all's she knew is that she wasn't ready to go home just yet. "Umm, why don't you sit down and tell me about that other bank you saved…?"

Natsu joined her on the couch and regaled her with his silly yet heroic deeds from Acalypha, and he didn't even leave out the part about the missing ammo.

Lucy giggled as she sat next to Natsu. "Haha, oh no you shot it without bullets!? Well, maybe I _should_ go home."

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Yea, well you're welcome for telling you the truth…I wouldn't wanna leave out anything important for a girl who likes cowboys and outlaws so much."

He smiled and nudged her arm, which made her sink lower in her seat with heavy heart.

She cracked under the pressure. "Yea, funny…Hey how are you so good with guns, anyway?"

Natsu was worried she would ask that question, so he began to tread lightly. "Eh let's just say I had a 'rough past.' Here let me show ya something."

Then the thick headed moron unbuttoned his shirt and removed his scarf, which nearly made Lucy lose her mind.

" _Natsu!?_ What the he-…?!"

Lucy stopped in mid-sentence as he showed her his branded right arm. She then put her hand up to her mouth in shock. "Oh, Natsu that looks so painful…what is it supposed to be?"

He laughed. "Not sure. It's actually seven years old. I'll let ya' touch it if you want."

Lucy held her left hand out to touch his mysterious scar, but kept her right one balled up in a tiny fist and placed it firmly over her heart. She then stopped and felt the rough patch of burnt skin that formed the oddly shaped brand mark mentioned before.

Although it was her original concern, Lucy quickly waved the thought away as she began following his well-defined arm muscles with her fingers. She then realized his muscular upper body was completely exposed without a shirt on, which made her stomach fill with butterflies and caused her heart to beat much faster than before.

Natsu on the other hand nearly jumped out of his seat after feeling the cool touch of her hand tracing his arm, and he _would_ have said something about it; but the 17-year old boy looked down and caught a cheeky view of the seemingly low-cut neck line on her dress as it hid underneath her right hand.

He then gulped and quickly looked away from her ample chest, and before his eyes could follow the rest of her voluptuous body he looked forward and met her large brown eyes staring back at him, which froze him in thought yet again as he tried to reply.

"Yea, it hurt when I got it…but now I think it's _pretty_ cool." He then felt rather confused and noticed that she seemed to like that answer, because without any protest they slowly grew closer and closer together.

"Uh-huh?" Lucy mindlessly let her palm slide down off his bicep and rested her hand on his. She then leaned in and went to do something other than speak, but right then they both heard a loud knock on the door.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

This made the two teenagers jump up in fear, and caused Natsu to quickly put his shirt back on. "Oh Geeze, what now?"

"We didn't do anything. Tell him we didn't do _anything_." Lucy on the other hand shook with fear and held her own hand like it was tainted as Natsu stood up.

When he opened the door a bellhop from the hotel stood with a serious face and a note in his hand. "Mr. Heartfilia would appreciate it if you relieved his daughter for the evening."

Lucy rolled her eyes and went to protest but Natsu interrupted. "Agh okay, I don't wanna piss _that_ guy off."

Lucy sighed and agreed, and as she stood for the door she walked over and wrapped Natsu in a tight hug.

"Natsu. Thanks again for showing me around town. I really had a good time tonight." Lucy then smiled and gave him a tiny yet calculated peck on the cheek as she quickly left the house with the timid bellhop.

Natsu sat back down in silence with his hand over his left cheek as it began to tingle from the kiss. The door closed shut, and once he looked around he grinned and grabbed his revolver and holster off the nearby table.

"I mean, I _better_ make sure she gets home safe…"

As Lucy and the bell hop made it back to the Hotel, Natsu hid inside the bushes just outside the door.

" _Teehee_ , sorry Jude but I just had to make sure your daughter got back to the hotel in one piece." He laughed to himself and went to sneak out, but as he did he wondered out from the bush and ran right into Jude Heartfilia standing outside smoking an evening cigar.

"Oh…hello sir." Natsu stood like a child as the blonde man looked down with confusion.

Jude looked rather displeased with the gesture but continued to talk. "Natsu? Why are you…wait, you better have brought my daughter back _safely_."

Natsu jumped up to defend his honor. "No don't worry! Your little servant guy came and got her!"

Jude looked on with curiosity. "Is that so, then why did you decide to follow them out here?"

Natsu looked down and took a large gulp. "Oh…I just wanted to make sure she got home safe, just like you said."

Jude looked down to see Natsu was carrying his gun, and then sighed as he put out his cigar. "Tell me, Natsu…were you an _outlaw_ prior to your arrival in Magnolia?"

Nastu's heart stopped beating for just that moment. "Uhhh…"

Jude rolled his eyes and frowned. "Oh come, now. You don't think I would organize a tour out west without taking a look at all my employee's records, do you?"

Jude then sighed and turned around. "Oh I should have known this was coming. Lucy's always been such a fan of mystery and adventure, and her mother always filled her brain with wild stories about make-believe worlds and characters."

Natsu stepped up to reassure the worried father. "Agh don't worry, I never exactly _told_ her about my past."

Jude looked down and nodded. "Ah, Good boy. Now get home and let me go to bed."

" _Aye Sir!_ " Natsu snapped up and gave him a quick salute, and immediately bolted back to his small home.

Jude threw away his cigar and yelled one last comment. "Oh, and take the day off tomorrow. The Train station's shut down, and I have a meeting with your Town Hall. I'm sure Lucy won't want to stay inside moping all day…"

Natsu paused and turned around with a big grin on his face. "Oh…okay, thanks!" and he immediately ran off.

* * *

 _~Meanwhile, in the back of the Sheriff's Office_

"Argh, come on _Brandy_. If you woulda started back when I did you'd be right with me enjoying the sweet air of freedom."

The dark criminal Ajeel Ramel had just successfully carved out a hole in the back of his old wooden cell wall, and he begged Brandish to join him through her window.

"Don't call me that..." She sighed with defeat. "I don't really deserve to leave this place. And frankly neither do you."

Ajeel laughed as he picked up a bloody revolver from a dead jail guard outside the building. "Yea, well I don't need your lip. If you wanna rot be my guest."

He then turned and left as Brandish continued to sit in silence.

Ajeel laughed quietly as he walked off into the night.

"I'll just have to get my hands on that Heartfilia money some other way…"

* * *

 **Okay that was a lot. _Mini_ -recap!**

 **1.) Jude is a good dad. He really cares about his daughter!**

 **2.) On the other hand Natsu's friends suck (except Levy. She's sweet.)**

 **3.) The little _romance_ scene (the first _real_ romance scene of the story): Basically the _make-or-break_ scene for any romantic fan fic. Tell me what you thought as you read**

 **4.) Brandish and Ajeel. Keep an eye out, I really gave them both heavy roles in the story (Which is funny cause their roles used to be filled by two different Spriggan characters back when I first wrote this story. I'm still not sure why I singled them out, but their appearances fit _really_ well!)**

 **Anyway I hope you enjoyed ch. 8, and look out for 9 tomorrow!**


	9. Chapter 9-The Weight of Wealth

**Author's Note: Hello! Here is chapter 9! Natsu lucked out and earned a _second_ day with Lucy as her father spends the day with the town's folk. Let's see what they get into!**

 **(BTW the new FT manga chapter came out today...it was...wow.)**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_.**

* * *

Chapter Nine - The Weight of Wealth

* * *

"Really!? You're gonna take me out to _shoot_ with you!?"

Lucy nearly jumped off the face of the earth she was so giddy with excitement. Her original plan was to find that library Levy told her about, but she never realized her dad would let her spend more time with Natsu again.

Natsu walked beside her as he began to laugh. "Yea, it's pretty cool. Not sure why _you're_ all excited though?"

Lucy smiled and locked her arm with his. "Oh, just _cause!_ It's the 'wild west' after all! I've always wanted to shoot a gun!"

She then stopped and realized that she had taken ahold of Natsu's arm, and as soon as Lucy caught herself she jumped away and straightened up.

"Ahaha. I'm sorry about that…just got a little carried away."

Natsu rolled his eyes and continued to lead her through the field to their destination. "Ha, whatever you say, Lucy."

* * *

Finally, after a lengthy walk over to their practice field, Natsu and Lucy finally made it to Bisca and Alzack standing near their shooting perch.

Bisca smiled and waved at the guests. "Ah, Natsu! You brought a friend, today."

Alzack slid off the ladder of the small tower and laughed. "Oh, you brought a _girl_ to come see your shooting? Interesting…"

Natsu looked down with anger and began rubbing the back of his neck while Lucy shot her hand up for a hand shake. "Hi, I'm Lucy; Lucy _Heartfilia_!"

Bisca and Alzack both froze, and the latter nearly dropped the gun he was holding.

The green haired sharp-shooter spoke first. "O-oh, are you _Jude_ Heartfilia's daughter?"

Lucy looked confused and embarrassed at the same time. "Y-yea, why do you ask?"

Alzack jumped up before it got too awkward. "No reason! We're from the east; so we know a lot about your dad! Hey Natsu you mind coming with me to unpack this box of glass bottles. We figured we could use them as targets, today…"

Natsu left Bisca and Lucy to chat while he followed Alzack. "Yea, okay! So glass bottles…"

As they went off a ways, Alzack dropped the box and turned around. "Natsu! What the hell are you doing!?"

Natsu snapped back with rage. "Well, I'm tryin' to help you move some boxes!"

Alzack smacked himself in the face. "No…I mean why did you bring Jude Heartfilia's daughter with you!?"

Natsu turned to Lucy and shrugged. "I dunno. Her dad told me to keep her busy for the day."

"Ah… _really_?" Alzack did a double take as he waited for Natsu's reply.

Natsu then thought about it for a moment. " _Well, I guess he never said 'take my daughter out to shoot guns with ya!'…Lucy just looked so happy after I told her about my practice. I guess she sorta invited herself along…?_ "

However, before he admitted his folly, the thick headed Natsu lied. "Yep! You can even ask _her_ if you want proof!"

Alzack went to say something, but a loud *BANG* shot through the air, and the two boys instantly turned toward the large wooden target in the middle of the field. After seeing a cloud of dust fly off its top they turned over to see Lucy holding Bisca's rifle and smiling back at them.

"Sorry guys!" She shouted over with joy as Bisca chuckled beside her. Alzack and Natsu both sank with fear as they tried to plan around the rest of the practice.

* * *

As the long day turned to evening Natsu and his blonde friend were originally enjoying themselves, but their smiles quickly faded as they were greeted by a very sad bit of news.

"NO! YOU'RE LEAVING ME!?"

Bisca and Alzack nodded. Apparently they were recently called back to the capital to pursue another mission, and they never decided to tell Natsu until now.

Bisca had a sorry look on her face. "We didn't want to distract you from the lessons. You've been doing really well by the way!"

Alzack then rolled his eyes. "Yea, except for the time you shot the target while I was still placing bottles…"

Natsu didn't want to believe it. "But, we're a team?"

Bisca laughed. "Hey kid, we're marshals and you're not even allowed to shoot with us. Actually you're not even allowed to have a gun since you're a con…" She went to say "convict" but stopped as she remembered Lucy was standing right there.

"…con-tractor with the rail roads!"

"Natsu!" Lucy gasped and smacked Natsu with her hand bag as if he was a child. "That's my dad's company! Why did you start getting into guns if you knew you weren't allowed!?"

Although she 'seemed' mad, the idea of him breaking her father's work rules left her kind of _intrigued_ (even though it was a complete lie.)

Either way Natsu was not happy as he looked back at Bisca. "So what!? Our town doesn't even have a marshal without you two! There, now you have to stay!"

Alzack laughed and jumped on his horse. "Sorry Natsu. The law's the law. By the way…since you uh 'scared' my horse the other day, I have no choice but to take yours back east."

Natsu growled while sounding very annoyed, because he clearly remembered that he never "scared" the horse from the other day. "Ah, fine. Kick a man while he's down. See if I care."

Bisca laughed again as she tapped her chip. "Come to think of it, maybe you _do_ need more training…"

Natsu shot back up. "Oh no! You guys have 'bigger jobs' to deal with!"

They both rolled their eyes and laughed, as Alzack spoke first. "Ah, whatever. Look us up if you're ever on the east coast!"

Bisca quickly road behind him and waved goodbye. "It was nice meeting you, Lucy!"

Lucy smiled and waved back. "Thanks! It was nice meeting both of you too!"

As the two Marshals road off for the eats, Natsu sighed, but just then Alazack yelled back one last comment. "Oh, by the way! Go clean up the target for us before you leave!"

Natsu spat at the ground. "Agh, they're leaving me and they still want me to do chores."

Lucy giggled and followed her fiery new friend off towards the hill with the target. "Oh Natsu."

They had a small hike to reach the far away wooden target, and as they got close Lucy began to get curious. "What exactly is it anyway? I still can't make it out."

Natsu squinted his eyes to try and get a better look. "Yea, come to think about it, this is the first time I've ever…"

He stopped as Lucy looked confused. "Natsu?"

The pink haired boy froze, but immediately started walking forward as he came up to a wooden model of the desert's most feared outlaw, _Acnolgia the Black Dragon_.

As they got closer, Lucy shivered at the sight of the grotesque shooting dummy. "Geeze, that thing is super creepy."

She then looked to Natsu who stopped and explained his thought. "Yea…he is. But why did they…?"

As Natsu examined the grounds he noticed the landscape of the hill was very familiar. He saw a line of the train tracks off in the distance, but he knew this wasn't a line he helped build. That being said he still knew the area for some strange reason.

As Natsu and Lucy kept walking around the small field, a little wooden steak with a small sign caught Natsu's eye.

 **"R.I.P. _Zeref Dragneel_ "**

Natsu walked over to the small sign and fell to his knees. Lucy cried out for him and ran up behind him.

"Hey! Are you alright!?...who's Zeref?"

Natsu frowned and looked into the dirt. He then wiped a tear away from his eye and looked up towards Lucy. "Come on, let's head back. There's something I gotta tell ya…"

* * *

Lucy and Natsu were wondering back to Magnolia in the early night as she gasped from his story.

"Natsu! You were in a gang!?"

Natsu didn't look at her to reply. "I never wanted to tell ya, just in case you got scared or somethin'. Your dad already knew, and I promised him I'd keep it a secret."

Lucy paused and captured that thought. "…When did you talk with my dad?"

That little question made Natsu smile. " _That's_ your take away? Geeze, maybe you're not so smart after all."

Lucy smiled and let out her famous blush as she grabbed him by the arm. "Nah, maybe I just knew all along, and maybe I didn't care." She winked at him and continued talking.

"You know I'm leaving soon. It won't happen for a few days because your train station is still out of commission, but either way that means you _have_ to come visit me!" Lucy smiled at the thought of showing Natsu all around her home town, just to make up for his kind gesture the day before.

Natsu scratched his head. "Ah I don't know, I'm not good on trains…"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Natsu, that's the lamest excuse I've ever heard. Plus you told me your sister lives out there, too. You could move in with her!"

Natsu pondered that move. "I mean, I _really_ can't do trains…and Alzack took back the horse he let me borrow."

"Yea, I _guess_ a horse would work…" Lucy stopped and came up with a brand new idea. "I got it! I know what we can do."

* * *

Then, Natsu and Lucy found themselves at the local stables outside Magnolia. The office rarely ever had excess horses, and if they did they either came with some weird disease or they came at a very high price.

Lucy took Natsu inside and smiled. "Okay, now pick one out and tell me the price!"

Natsu looked blown away. "Hold on you can't be serious!? What if I pick one of those _goofy exotic ones_ with the fancy colors!? You'd have to pay extra!"

Lucy smiled and let out a small laugh. "Why not? You've been so nice to me during my time here, and I'd really like it if you came and paid me a visit back home!"

Natsu shook his head and pointed out the first on he saw. "How about that one?"

Its withered brown hair was crusted down to the root, and it had a family of flies hovering all around it hide.

Lucy giggled. "Ah, let's see if there are any others…Oh! How about that one?"

She pointed out a tall, grey racing stallion standing in the middle of the barn, and Natsu immediately shook his head.

"Oh no, that one's grey and black. It makes me think of a train." He shook his head and kept walking. "You said I'm allowed to pick one of those _fancy colored ones_. Maybe they have a 'green' horse, or a…"

Lucy followed and kept her eyes on the grey one. "A train? Natsu I'm not sure that makes any…Ohff. _Hey!_ "

Lucy stopped as she ran right into Natsu's back, and she looked over to see that he was wide eyed and grinning bright with joy as he saw the next one.

It had exotic _blue_ hair and a rather thin frame. Its legs faded into all white and it even came with a long green cloth tied around it big neck. Finally, its eyes were all blank white with large black pupil, and it held a great big goofy smile on its face.

Natsu walked forward with determination in his eyes. "Oh yea, this is my guy!"

Lucy giggled. "Really? I kinda like it too. After all he looks really _happy_ to be here!"

Natsu then snapped his fingers. "GREAT IDEA, LUCY! We can name him _Happy_!"

The horse liked the acknowledgement and began to whinny up and down with joy.

Natsu quickly ran over to the barn keep and made his demand. "Okay guy, how much for the blue on!?"

The man paused and scratched his head. "Uh…you want _that_ one?"

Lucy stepped in front of Natsu and waved her pocket book in front of the man. "Yes. And please, no questions asked."

Soon after, Natsu took his new friend out of the barn and walked with Lucy as they made it to the next building off of the town.

Natsu looked away from Lucy and smiled. "Well this is awesome! Although now I don't think I can ride horses…"

Lucy hit him on the arm and yelled with rage. "Oh shut up!" She then paused as Natsu brought her in for a quick hug and smiled.

"Thanks for caring about me, Lucy. It's always hard for me to talk about my past, but the fact that you seem so cool with it…makes me feel pretty good."

Lucy's face went completely bright red, and she began choking on her words. She immediately remembered their intimate moment from the night before, and really wanted to just stand there and melt away in his arms this time around.

But finally, she coughed up her response as the blush began to fade from her cheeks. "U-um, y-yea sure don't mention it."

From there Natsu held Lucy just a little while longer, but as they stood there, it appeared they were not alone.

As the two teenagers enjoyed their little moment, a black figure was watching them from around the corner.

Standing behind the next building over was the desert expert and navigator for the _Spriggan 12,_ Jacob the Tracker.

Jacob grinned with a sly remark as he looked at the two young friends with great interest. "So, the Heartfilias _do_ have money to burn. And they're in league with that little brat, _Salamander_ …" He laughed and immediately turned to his partner, _Neinhart the Colorful._

Neinhart sighed with a effeminate voice. "Ah, and what wonderful young lovers they've become. It almost shames me to break both their immature hearts so quickly into their relationship. They would have made a wonderful historia for the fabled book of love!"

The bizarre blonde haired man then turned into a fan of the romance as he sighed with satisfaction, and as he came back to reality his partner face-palmed.

Jacob waved his hands in anger. "Would you cut it out with that nonsense!? It ridiculous!"

Neinhart chuckled and began combing his own thick head of smooth blonde hair, and then laughed as he smiled and pointed back towards the couple. "Well I'm sorry, but some of us have an appreciation for young love...maybe if you had a full head of hair you'd be more of a romantic yourself."

Jacob turned around and began rubbing his shiny bald dome with discomfort, but then Neinhart laughed again and replied.

"And don't worry, Wahl and Ajeel are both already in place for our next plan."

* * *

 **Uh-oh, Jacob and Neinhart are in town. Let's see how the other Spriggans plan to act! Also...**

 ** _HAPPY!_ Ah it felt so good to work him into the story. Arguably my favorite FT character! (Also maybe Lucy?) Natsu's a main character in a western, and he needed a trusty steed. _Who_ else would work better?**

 **Meanwhile, Lucy and Natsu are _really_ starting to open up to each other. Could they be...ah we'll wait to see in chapter 10 tomorrow!**


	10. Chapter 10-The Spriggan 12

**Author's Note: Hello, here's chapter 10! I don't really have any extra things to say so I hope you enjoy!**

 **(Edit...I take that back. Too much sh*t to discuss. Time Warner Cable crapped their pants last night, the Cleveland Browns _really_ crapped their pants last night, but...the Columbus Crew recently made it to the MLS Cup Championship! So now I'm pumped!)**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_.**

* * *

Chapter Ten - The Spriggan 12

* * *

Soon after buying a new horse for her beloved friend Natsu, Lucy strolled back to the hotel all by herself. She was worried that they had been out for far too long and feared that her father would be furious if he saw Natsu again this late at night. As a result, she begged Natsu to go back home and leave her to walk back alone.

In any case, the blonde girl couldn't even walk straight due to her constant spinning and humming during her little stroll home.

"Well that was fun. That horse kept giving me a weird look, but I'm sure Natsu doesn't care as long as he's…" She stopped as she noticed several deputies standing outside the hotel.

"…happy." Lucy finished her thought and ran as fast as she could through the door.

As rangers were yelling at her to stop, Lucy busted through the door and found several officials carrying her father down the steps on a medical gurney.

"DADDY!" The blonde girl shrieked with fear and ran over to his side.

"Lu-cy." Jude could barely breathe, and he didn't even look alive at this point. "It's so good to…see you…"

Lucy couldn't even make out his face due to all of tears that were blurring her vision. She also couldn't take her eyes off of all the blood that was pouring out of his side.

"Wha-what happened to you…?"

Jude smiled and placed his hand on her cheek. "I had a nasty run in with a local, I guess _*cough*_. Listen…how was your day with Natsu?"

Lucy kept crying, but tried to smile just for her father. "Oh, it was g-great…I just wish I could have been here t-to…"

Jude then grabbed her hand and smiled. "Lucy, _you_ are safe. That's all I've ever cared about. You know…your mother would be so very proud to see just how beautiful you are now."

Lucy didn't want to accept his fate, and as she tried collecting the scene Jude looked his daughter right in her big brown eyes and continued.

"Lucy… _I…love you_ …"

Jude Heartfilia used his final breath to confess his love for his daughter right before her very eyes, and as the words left his lips he passed away right then and there.

"NO, PLEASE! I LOVE YOU TOO, DADDY! _PLEASE!_ "

Lucy then collapsed to the floor as several bell hops helped her up and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders; but either way her beloved father was gone, and she was devastated.

* * *

 _~Meanwhile…_

Natsu had just made it home from his long night out with Lucy, and was taking his newly purchased friend to the lone shack outside of town.

"Boy, I gotta tell ya Happy; Lucy sure is weird…" He pondered his thought as the smiling blue horse nodded in agreement, which made the pink haired gunman laugh with joy.

"Haha, even you agree! Ah, I knew you were the right choice."

Once he made it to the porch, he tied Happy up to the porch pillar and headed for the door. "Wait right here I gotta get something for ya."

As he wondered inside he shut the door behind him to keep all the cool air out, and right as it shut Natsu turned around and met his face with the back of a wooden rifle.

He yelled out in pain and fell to the ground. "WHAT THE HELL!?"

Natsu then wiped away the blood from his nose and looked up to find several familiar faces from the _Spriggan 12_ standing inside his house.

He began to shake with pure rage. "What do you monsters what with _me_?"

As none of them answered, they all looked to the kitchen doorway, and as Natsu looked too, _Acnologia the Black Dragon_ came walking into the living room with a cruel look on his face.

"It's been a while, _Salamander_ ; what seven years or so? I've heard your name out and about recently, and I just thought I'd stop by to see how you are." Acnologia then circled the room and looked at all his gang members as they began to laugh.

"Our boy Natsu here stopped the _Raven Tail_ raid on Acalypha a few days back. That wasn't even our gang and he still knew how ta' win that one. Then there's our 2 Spriggans he messed with in the bank…and _God Serena_ , who he killed out in the streets."

Natsu spat a small amount of blood and yelled out with anger as he reached for his now missing pistol. "Yea, well if ya give me my gun I'd kill you too."

Acnologia let out a very small smile. "Ha! You're a little shit, Natsu, but I gotta tell you something. You've got _pretty_ good taste in women…"

Natsu's eyes opened wide with rage as he began to grind his teeth. "What are you trying to say…?"

Acnologia continued with a smile. "Here's the thing. That ol' Jude Heartfilia had a lot of money goin' his way, and it was all just sitting right there in that bank. However, after your little stunt in Acalypha the bank here has tightened security. Now we need a _Heartfilia_ to get the money, and it just so happens that the _father_ recently bit the dust."

"YOU'RE _LYING_!" Natsu tried to stand with anger, but two unknown Spriggans were holding him down.

"Oh, he isn't. I killed the poor bastard, _myself_ …"

Natsu snapped his head over to the kitchen door and saw the messy brown hair of Ajeel come in through the back porch. "Actually, I just got back from finishing the job right in the hotel, and boy he bled out quick."

Natsu looked down to see Ajeel's boots had blood spatters on the tips. He then looked over to the murderous Spriggan and delivered a daunting threat. "Grrr, you're gonna pay for that you pile of…"

Acnologia stepped up and collected the scene again. "Hold on, boy. I'm not done. As I was saying; we need a _Heartfilia_ to get the money, and now that one is dead we _really_ need a Heartfilia to get the money, _if_ you know what I mean..."

Natsu didn't have to be a genius to know where he was going with his next threat.

" _GYAH!_ YOU BASTARDS! DON'T EVEN _THINK_ ABOUT LAYING A _FINGER_ ON LUCY!"

Natsu squirmed with rage as he tried to break free, but the two Spriggans both held him down and kicked him in the side.

Acnologia added on. "Relax, depending on how you behave, I won't have to. We recently discovered she gave you some money…"

Natsu stopped and flashed back to earlier in the night. " _The Horse!_ "

Acnologia carried on. "It's obvious that the little girl trusts ya, and we're gonna use that to our advantage. You're gonna _make_ her give you the money."

Natsu shook his head with disbelief. "And what if I don't…?"

Acnolgia frowned. "Ah, I knew you'd be stubborn, hell I heard that stubbornness almost got you killed that day vs Serena. What was the name of that bloke he killed? Gildarts?"

"AGH SHUT UP!" Natsu knew he'd take another hit in the jaw for that outburst, but he took it with pride none the less.

Acnologia shrugged. "What? There's no reason to get yourself hurt again, that fucker's long dead, but I think he had a _daughter_ or something?" He opened up his trench coat and threw down a very low quality photograph of Cana inside a train station, right plain as day for Natsu to see.

The Black Dragon grinned. "Took that over in Onibas. Man, she almost made it out of the west, but we managed to grab her before she made it on."

That was the last thing Natsu needed to see or hear. He had no idea if any of it was true, but knowing Acnologia, there really wasn't any other reason for him to know who Cana was, or for him to have that photo.

Acnologia put the tip of his boot on Natsu's chin. "You don't say one damn word to that Heartfilia bitch while you're getting that money. You get it, and bring it back here silent as a mouse, and if not..."

Acnologia stood up, drew his revolver, and shot a smoking hole right through the photographed head of Cana.

"She dies, the Heartfilia girl dies, and you die. _Just_ like your brother!"

Natsu was broken. If he had any strength hiding in his veins, it left him once they threatened Cana's life. And _Lucy_...Normally his strength wouldn't have gone away so easily, but the fact that they had him held down and marked up with guns…he really didn't have a choice.

Then a small tear fell from Natsu's eye as he conceded.

"Fine."

* * *

The next day was cold, a rare one in Magnolia. Lucy wore a dark blue gown with little flare as she attended her father's make shift funeral. She would have worn black, but she never anticipated burying a loved one on her trip out west.

Although no on in town really knew her, they all made Lucy feel right at home with their kind remarks and hospitality.

Still, she was completely bothered with the fact that Natsu never showed up.

As she walked back to her hotel, Levy and Juvia decided to make sure she was alright.

"Please, let me know if there's anything we can do! Even if it's just giving you a book to read." Levy wanted to cry as Lucy looked on with a lifeless expression.

Juvia would have cried too, but tried to stay strong for the good of her new friend, Lucy. "Yes, please. Come to us if there's anything you need."

Lucy sighed as she finally made it to the door. "Thanks for following me home, guys…"

The blonde girl didn't even wave good-bye. She simply nodded and shut the door behind her as Levy and Juvia both stood with concerned expressions.

Levy shook her head and thought to herself. " _Damn it Natsu. Why couldn't you have been there for her at the funeral…?_ "

Lucy slowly made it up to her now open hotel suit. Although her dad was paying for it, the town offered to let her use it as long as the train station was out of use. Still, she didn't really like the idea of going into the presumed crime scene where her dad got shot the night before.

And so, as she made it to the top of the stair Lucy slowly opened the door, but as she went through she looked up to find another person waiting inside.

Natsu was sitting alone on the side of one of the beds while also looking out the window. He had a very troubled look on his face but quickly shot up with concern as Lucy entered inside.

"Lucy…" He jolted up with a soft spoken voice, and looked her in the eyes as she quickly began to cry.

"*Sob* _Natsu_ …" She didn't even have a care as to how or why he was in the room. All that mattered now was that he was there, with her.

Lucy dropped her handkerchief and stumbled into the arms of her familiar Natsu as they stood there in silence. Lucy cried right into the shoulder sleeve of his shirt, and Natsu let out a few small tears of his own right behind her (but deep down, his tears fell for a completely different reason.)

The room got quiet, and Natsu spoke up with a soft and hesitant voice.

"Hey listen. You're not safe in this town…"

She looked up and tried to wipe the tears away from her face. "Huh? *Sob* W-What do you mean?"

He looked away and tried to keep from crying. "Listen, your dad had a lot of money left in that bank. You can't just leave it here in Magnolia. You have to take it out, tomorrow…"

Lucy looked confused. "But, why? They could probably just send me a check or something…"

He tried to lie. "That doesn't work out here, Lucy. You gotta take the money out of the bank. Once you do…come find me and I can tell you where to stay…"

Lucy looked him in the eyes and noticed he started to cry. She never fully thought about it, but it was pretty clear that the hotel room wasn't a safe place to sleep for multiple nights in a row.

Lucy just assumed Natsu was worried for her well being and softly replied. "Oh…w-well I guess…"

She then continued to cry as she brought him back in for a closer hug. "I guess…I can at least be thankful that _you're_ looking out for me."

Natsu didn't even wrap his arms around the poor girl, and he had to use all his strength to keep the rest of the tears from flowing out of his eyes.

Then the ex-outlaw thought of an excuse to leave before she could see him break down. "H-hey, how about you get some rest and I can wait outside and keep watch…?"

"No! I...I don't want to be alone right now." Lucy didn't like his suggestion and held him even tighter than before as she continued to sob into his shirt.

Natsu on the other hand had no choice but to embrace the long and painful night ahead. He lied right to her face and _knew_ he was eventually going to betray her, but he simply had no other choice; not with all the hidden Spriggans hanging around town.

Looking up to the ceiling to hide his own tears, Natsu then spoke up with a soft whisper.

"Sure thing, _Lu-cy_ …"

* * *

 **Agh, the story's sad again! Why do I keep killing the dads? (No joke, I wrote this _and_ I know what happens, but the last few moments in the hotel room still sorta jabbed me in the chest...)**

 **Boy Ajeel's a dick, isn't he? and Natsu...quit being a tool. Chapter 11 tomorrow.**


	11. Chapter 11-The Things We Do for Love

**Author's Note: Okay, when we last left our heroes Natsu had to make a pretty important decision regarding Lucy's well-being...let's hope he made the right one.**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_.**

* * *

Chapter Eleven - The Things We Do for Love

* * *

After a long and brutal night of tears and heart ache, the sun finally rose on the next day in Magnolia. Lucy had to get up fairly early in order to make it to the bank on time, but she still didn't manage to beat Natsu out the door, because he had left an hour earlier to clear his mind.

Lucy sprinted as she ran straight out of the bank and into the Magnolia daylight. She clutched her small hand bag and inside it she had a bank note made out in official lettering with well over 50 Million Jewell written on it.

Her first instinct brought her back to the _Vermilion Hotel_ , but like Natsu told her she really isn't safe in town.

"I gotta get to Natsu's house, he said he can show me where to stay." Lucy then went to make her move but quickly caught herself.

"Wait, what if he just wants me there alone to do something uncomfortable, or what if he tries taking _advantage_ of me?"

The naïve teenage girl continued running as she held her hand up to her cheek. " _God, why am I so paranoid with boys…?_ "

As Lucy ran through the west side of town, she stopped to turn down an ally, but as she did she ran into a shadowy figure.

"Oh crap, look I don't…" She then stopped and realized who it was.

"Natsu! I've been looking for you…wait are you, crying?"

Natsu turned around and quickly wiped the tears away. "Yea, there's a kitchen in the building next door. You smell onions?"

Lucy tried to smell the air as Natsu wanted to strangle himself for the bold face lie he just spat out. "Ah never mind. Come on, we have to hurry."

Natsu then grabbed her hand and whisked her away as they made for his outskirt home.

As they drew closer Lucy yelled ahead. "Oh, good thinking! Your house is _perfect!_ "

Natsu tried to ignore the comment as they made it to the door. Lucy the noticed Happy wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Hang on, where's the horse that I bought you?" She scratched her head as Natsu answered without turning around.

"He's around back…let's just get inside." He opened the door and showed her into his dimly lit home.

Lucy then grabbed her bag as she made it inside. "Well it turns out you were wrong. They _do_ have bank notes that can replace actual money. All's I have to do is show it to them when I'm ready to leave and they can help me pack it up on the train ride home."

Natsu did a double take and immediately regretted his decision. "LUCY YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO JUST BRING THE _MONEY_!?

Lucy turned to face him as the door shut. "W-Why?"

He couldn't answer, because as he went to say something, a lone cigar lit up in the shadowy corner of the living room.

Sitting behind the flame was Ajeel the Desert King from the Spriggan 12, and he sat in a chair located in the corner of the room with a gun on his lap and a smile on his face.

"Damn, boy you actually did it? That's _low_." He mocked Natsu and then held up his pistol to aim it straight at Lucy.

Lucy froze in place and couldn't find words to speak. "Huh? Natsu…?" She turned to see the pink haired boy glaring back at Ajeel.

"Okay, the money's here, now you don't need her." Natsu hissed as he yelled out his bluff to Ajeel.

Lucy gasped and fully turned to face her so called "friend."

"Natsu, you…you _lied_ to me? You just wanted…" She looked down to her hand bag and couldn't even speak as her blood began to boil.

She then added up everything in her head. " _He used to be a Spriggan…and he knew they wanted my dad's money…All this time I thought I was the one he…_ "

Lucy began to show small tears in her eyes as Natsu never answered her, and as the poor blonde girl started to shake with rage and defeat, Ajeel began to laugh.

"Ah, well ya see _Salamander_ that's where you're wrong. You didn't bring the money, you just brought the _girl_."

The Desert King then stood up and slid his arm under Lucy's waste with a sly grin.

"And _my_ lord what a girl she is…"

Lucy immediately slapped Ajeel in the face and shoved him away, and then she ran right at Natsu, pushing him into the wall.

"YOU LIED TO ME! You _knew_ my dad just died and you still _LIED_ TO ME!" She began to sob uncontrollably as she looked him right in the eyes. "IS THAT WHY YOU KEPT ME OUT THE OTHER NIGHT? TO LET THEM _KILL MY DAD_!?

"No L-Lucy..." Natsu had no volume in his voice. "I couldn't tell you, or else they threatened to kill you."

Lucy tried to let her brain reason with him, but her emotions were building up too fast. As a result she began bursting at the seems

"I-I CAN'T LOOK AT YOU, NATSU! I just...can't..."

She collapsed and fell to her knees as several other Spriggans came in through the back, and as two of them grabbed Lucy by the arms, the other four went for Natsu.

Natsu completely ignored his own fate to defend Lucy's. "YOU BASTARD! YOU SAID SHE'D BE SAFE!"

The other two Spiggans hand cuffed Lucy and took her away as she began to sob even louder, but all Ajeel could do was laugh with delusion.

"Yea, well now the boss has other plans." Ajeel smiled as he turned away from watching Lucy leave the room, and directed his attention back to Natsu. "He said the girl'd be worth a fortune if we gave her up for ransom. Now _he_ gets to have all the fun and wait in town to prepare for a shoot-out with that idiot _Sherriff_ of yours...maybe if we're lucky they'll both kick the bucket."

"You..." Natsu always remembered Ajeel's rebellious attitude even when his brother Zeref was the gang leader. "You want Acnologia to die, just so you can take the gang."

Natsu wanted to strangle Ajeel then and there, but his hands were now tied behind his back as four unnamed Spriggans held him in place.

Ajeel continued. "Maybe so? I also know the Boss wants us to take _you_ out to your brother's 'memorial' for a little _execution_. We have a nice grave dug up just waitin' for ya!"

"NO! _LUCY_!" Natsu kicked and screamed as they took him through the door, and as they did Ajeel yelled back with another evil grin.

"Ah don't worry about that, now! I'll take _good_ care of the girl while _you're_ gone!" He howled with laughter as he slammed the door shut, and left Natsu to struggle with rage as the Spriggans placed a brown sack over his head and took him off to the sight of his execution.

* * *

The group of riders finally made it out to Zeref's burial ground, and sure enough Ajeel was right. The ruthless gang _had_ gone through the effort to dig Natsu his very own grave, and it sat right beside his fallen brother's from seven years ago.

One of the Spriggans then grabbed a well secured Natsu off her new horse, Happy and carried him over to the pit. The female outlaw had on a dark brown cowboy hat and hid most of her face with a deep blue bandanna.

It didn't matter though, Natsu knew he had never seen her before.

The same went for the tall man beside her with a red bandanna covering his face. As for the other two, it appeared that Ajeel sent his two personal bodyguards to join the strangers on their trip out to the sight.

The first was a man with creepy eyes and a bright white turban, _Kareem the Strange_ ; and behind him was his mindless ape of a friend _Bakel the Strangler_ who always made sure to attend executions.

Bakel laughed with a fire and sarcasm in his voice. "Man, it's a shame we have to kill the kid. I call dibs on his scarf!"

Kareem laughed with an odd sigh. "Relax, we can all divide his belongings when were done. Besides, _Oberon_ already called out for the scarf."

The tall man standing beside Natsu shrugged and spoke with a deep voice. "What can I say? I like the checkers." The man known as Oberon then pointed at Natsu's blue steed, Happy, who road in with him and the woman.

Oberon then chuckled. "And don't take the horse, or else _Titania_ will have your head."

The woman holding Natsu held her head down with a smile under her bandanna. "What? I like the look he gives me when I walk by."

Bakel laughed and took Natsu from her hands. "Yea, whatever. Either way it's time for this fool to die." The brute then took an angry Natsu and forced him to kneel to the ground.

"AGH! LET HER GO!" Natsu had a brown bag over his head, but he was still annoying his captors with his useless cries for Lucy's mercy.

Oberon shook his head. "Hold on. I thought the boss told you _we_ were going to do it…?"

Bakel pointed his gun down to Natsu's head and smiled. "Yea, we'll go ahead and stop me."

Natsu still kept struggling until he heard a _*click*._ He then tensed up and prepared for the worst.

Bakel laughed with amusement. "Say good-bye, _Salamander_ …"

Natsu waited for the longest second of his life until he heard a gun.

*BANG*

His heart began to beat faster than ever, and right then he realized he was still alive.

*BANG*

He crouched his head down again and noticed for a second time around he was still alive.

Waiting with tremors in his veins, Natsu then jerked forward as he felt the brown bag coming off of his head.

"WAIT! JUST DO IT NOW _PLEASEQUITTORTURINGMEI'LLDOANYTHING_ …!"

Natsu hysterically began to ramble on with nonsense as he opened his eyes and noticed the two _mysterious_ Spirggans looked down and laughed.

The woman known as Titania spoke first. "My-my, we must have shot them too quick. I think you might have sacred him half to death, _Jellal_."

She then removed her facial disguise to reveal a long flow of gorgeous red hair and a beautiful face as she smiled to her comrade.

Natsu looked around and noticed Bakel and Kareem were both lying dead in the desert pit, and as he turned back he then saw Oberon remove his disguise to reveal a head of messy bright blue hair and a very bizarre _red tattoo_ over his right eye.

The man now known as Jellal laughed as he pulled out a "Federal Marshal's" badge and pinned it on his chest, and right then he looked at his friend and grinned with sarcasm.

"Well, perhaps you should have just done them both in, yourself. After all you _are_ the better shot, _Erza_."

* * *

 **Okay we're _eleven_ whole chapters in, and idk how many characters I've added to the story so far...NOT _ONE_ PERSON ASKED ME "Oh where's Erza?"**

 **Either you people aren't a fan of her work, or your very patient readers. Either way I'll just say it's the latter and praise you for being an awesome audience!**

 **Anyway...ERZA AND JELLAL HAVE ENTERED! YAY! _Now_ we're gonna see some ass kicking...but, poor Lucy now has a broken heart...I may not be able to continue updating the story, now.**

 **But either way, chapter 12 will be up tomorrow!**


	12. Chapter 12-Time to make Our Move

**Author's Note: Hello! No extra note today. Here's chapter 12 and enjoy!**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_.**

* * *

Chapter Twelve - Time to Make our Move

* * *

Natsu looked up with confusion as the man named Jellal walked around him to untie his restraints. The pink haired boy then looked up to the red haired girl and noticed she now had her own Marshal's Badge pinned to her chest as well.

"Whoa, who are you guys?" Natsu looked very impressed with their stealthy disguises.

The female Marshal smiled. "My name is _Erza Scarlet_ , and this is my partner _Jellal Fernandes_. We're known as 'undercover marshals' and we've been hiding inside the lesser Spriggan gangs for almost a year now trying to pin them down at just the right moment."

Jellal then smiled as he finished helping Natsu. "Yes. Over the course of the year the Spriggans have been surprisingly low-key, and they haven't really done anything too dangerous. However that changed after they murdered the Heartfilia patriarch."

Erza then grinned as she helped Natsu stand. "We were so close to ending their game, but we had to take a slight detour to ensure your safety. And so here we are."

Natsu scratched his head and asked a very simple minded question. "Wait, how many different kinds of Marshals are there!?"

Erza and Jellal both laughed, and the latter spoke first. "Well, with all the pandemonium back in Magnolia we figured you would ask us something about _that_ , instead. No matter, we can go ahead and explain it as we set up our camp fire."

Natsu did a double-take and noticed the sun had just crept down over the horizon. "Man, I guess it is late. We probably should just stay here for the night."

* * *

As time passed, the three of them sat around a cozy campfire, and Natsu began to ask about the town, to which Jellal answered.

"Well, ever since you killed Serena, the entire Spriggan gang has been monitoring you and Magnolia nonstop. They were also originally there to take the Heartfilia's funds anyway, but they figured they could kill two birds with one stone as long as they played their cards right."

Erza then continued. "As we speak the Spriggan have probably begun to show their faces around town and most likely have started taking people hostage. Last time we stopped through we noticed the Sheriff was pulling all his men away from the north end of town and situated them all around the bank. The good thing is that this helped salvage the bank and its surrounding west side buildings, the bad news is that all the buildings on the north and east sides have been completely overrun with Spriggan guns."

Natsu then scratched his chin with a heavy thought. "So the whole town is in danger cause of me…?"

Erza sighed. "Please, don't look at it like that, Natsu."

Jellal then nodded. "Yes, after all they originally came here in search of the Heartfilias, so it would seem that Lu-…"

Erza jabbed him in the chest before he could continue, but Natsu already caught the gist of Jellal's comment.

The pink haired boy then held his head down with a lot of weight on his mind. "Yea, that's my fault too. I could have saved her. She just bought Happy for me, and I could have taken us out of town and far away from this mess…But no, I chose to betray her. No wonder everyone calls me a moron…"

Jellal shook his head and tried to make up for his loose words. "I'm afraid it wouldn't have been so easy. The Spriggans had you two cornered, and if you tried to run they would have chased you down. Also the train station has been out of commission due to their sabotage on the inside tracks, so you were both completely stuck in town."

Natsu took a gulp and chuckled after hearing the train station was still down. "Ahehe, yea…it's a shame the train station was _broken_."

Natsu then asked another question while he had the chance. "So how'd you guys get stuck following the Spriggan's for a whole year, anyway?"

Jellal sighed. "We weren't actually assigned to their case, we _chose_ it."

Erza then joined him as she pulled up her sleeve. "We use to be standard Marshals, but we got captured by some of the Spriggans' younger members a few years back. They had use ready to be executed, but we got out before they did anything too drastic. However, since we were open enemies with their cause they branded us with theses."

She then pushed up her left sleeve to reveal the _exact_ same brand mark on Natsu's arm.

The pink haired boy then put his hand over his right arm. "Whoa, you guys have it too!? What does it mean?"

Jellal continued. "Usually, if the Spriggan 12 take you hostage they mark you with that logo to 'tag' you in case you escape. Usually when they tag you with this mark, it means they've targeted you for _death_. In _your_ case I imagine they just marked you as a young boy with hopes that it would make you stand out as you grew older."

Natsu looked over to his right arm with an angry look in his eyes. "Well, looks like I've escaped them twice…"

Jellal then grinned and shrugged as he began poking the fire again. "We apprehended our first Spriggan member over in Onibas, a man by the name of _Larcade Dragneel_ not long after our infiltration."

"..." Natsu sighed. "He's just a cousin or something. Pretty quiet, wasn't much of a bandit when I was in the gang."

Jellal laughed. "I suppose that's why we caught him. Anyway I've been on the Spriggans for years now, but Erza only joined in on account of some unfinished family business of her own."

Erza never made a reply as she looked out to the setting scarlet sun.

Natsu stopped them their however and snapped his finger. "Wait, you were in Onibas? Do you know if Acno took any other hostages? Like a brown haired girl who looks my age?"

Jellal shook his head. "No I'm afraid I have no knowledge of that person. Apologies if she's important to you, and hopefully she's alright."

Natsu sighed and lowered his head, and just the a silence fell over the camp fire.

Erza then smiled and changed the subject as she looked right at Natsu. "By the way Natsu, I must say it's very admirable to see that you care for Lucy so much. As I recall you barely knew her not too long ago."

Natsu smiled and nodded to his new friend. "Yea, well she's just pretty fun to be around…I mean _you_ guys obviously know what I mean, right!?"

He smiled with a quirky grin as he gestured to both of his new acquaintances' "close relationship."

Jellal raised his eye brow and looked over to Erza, and she lost her words as her cheeks began to flush with red.

The latter spoke first. "Um, I'm not sure I follow…?"

Natsu then scratched his head. "Well to be completely honest I was surprised you two had different last names. After all you guys came in wearing scarfs that match each other's hair, I sorta figured you guys were some 'bad ass' bandit couple or something!"

Jellal turned away with an awkward but satisfied smile, and Erza looked in the complete opposite direction to hide her blushing cheeks.

Nastu then silenced his laughter and looked back their way. "Alright, now that the fun's over, I'm gonna need your help savin' Lucy."

* * *

Meanwhile, it was now pitch black over Magnolia, and only six or seven buildings were being occupied.

The town was in the middle of a complete and total stand-off as the Spriggans commandeered the Northeast side of town (Train station, Town Hall, Sheriff's Office), and the local citizens rallied inside the buildings on the western side (The Vermilion Hotel, The Magnolia Bank, and the Fairy Tail Saloon.)

If you were a local you were either in one of two places; either you had a gun and managed to join the ralliers on the west side of town, or you were stuck without protection and locked inside one of the other buildings as a hostage and prisoner.

Here, we find most of Natsu's friends standing right inside the boarded doors of the Fairy Tail Saloon as they all kept their eyes on the windows.

"Man, this is some real crap. How could we let those punks take our town right out from under us?" Gajeel hissed as he held a pistol in one hand and Levy's hand in the other.

Levy sighed with discomfort. "I just hope the library will be okay. If that place catches on fire I'm done for."

Gray and Juvia stood on the other side of the doorway and the latter spoke back. "Oh Gray, I hope we can make it out of this alive." She wrapped her arms around his muscular upper body as he looked out the window and sighed.

"Yea, this isn't gonna end well. We just need to make sure they don't take any more of our guy's hostage."

The Strauss siblings all sat at the bar, and as the all looked down to the ground, Mirajane sighed. "I just hope Sheriff Laxus knows what he's doing…"

"Ah, come on. When have I ever let this place down?"

They whole group looked up as Laxus Dreyar came in through the ally way door that connected the bank to the saloon. He was also joined by Mayor Makarov and his two deputies Freed and Bickslow.

Makarov shook his head as they entered the building. "While I'm not very fond of seeing my town in complete chaos, it seems we have no other choice. We need to end this here and now."

Mira smiled and the whole room cheered as Laxus then addressed the crowd.

"Okay, now stay quiet and listen up. We have a little plan that take them by surprise in the morning."

* * *

As Laxus explained his plan, the three quiet members of the Spriggan looked out the window of the Train Station. The first was the eldest member of the clan and master of strategy, _August the Wizard_ ; and the other was his younger son, _Invel the General_. Finally, Irene the Beauty stood with a sly grin like a fox as she turned to join the others.

August spoke up as he turned around to greet his leader, Acnologia. "So, all the hostages are inside the Town Hall? You better hope they stay put, or else the whole party's over."

The white haired Invel then added on his own thought. "I agree, was it very wise for use to put every prisoner in the town hall? I understand we have the train station sealed off, but putting all those people inside one building is bound to end badly with chances of escape."

Irene shrugged with amusement. "Well I personally love a challenge every once in a while. I'm sure our Boss thinks the same way...?"

Acnologia laughed and ignored their concern as he looked out the window to the Sheriff's office. "Don't worry, we'll draw that foolish Sheriff out one way or another, and that will end this little game we're playing. As for the prisoners? Sure, the _pawns_ are all stuffed inside the Town Hall, but our _queen_ has been taken to a much more suitable location…"

* * *

As all of this was unfolding, we then find ourselves inside the Magnolia Sheriff's Office. Two Spriggan guards watch inside as the fallen Brandish sits in a jail cell just adjacent to the newly heartbroken prisoner, Lucy Heartfilia.

Lucy had exhausted her tear ducts and was virtually unable to cry at this point. She sat there in the middle of her lone cell with hand cuffs keeping her hands secured in front of her body, and Brandish was located right beside her in the neighboring cell with a frown on her face as she laid out on her sleeping cot and looked up at the ceiling.

The rogue Spriggan then sighed with discomfort. "I'm sorry about your father. I told Ajeel he was in over his head…"

Lucy ignored Brandish's sympathy and looked down to the ground.

The female sharp-shooter continued. "Yea, I get it. You're dad's dead, and I'm the friend of his killer. I understand if you…"

"He lied to me."

Lucy spoke up with pure depression in her voice as Brandish looked puzzled.

" _Ajeel?_ What did he…?"

Lucy continued. "Natsu…he made me believe he was my friend. Then he told me he used to be an outlaw. That was right before my dad died, and then he betrayed me…"

Brandish shot up from her prison cot and looked over at Lucy. " _No_ …what happened?"

Lucy thought she was done crying, but somehow a single small tear crept out from her right eye as she explained her situation. "He told me the town was in danger and that I needed to take my dad's money and hide. Then he said he'd find me a nice place to stay, but he lied…we got to his house and _you_ people were waiting for me inside."

Brandish chose not to believe it. "No, that's not Natsu. Sure his brother may have been that way…" The Spriggan paused to remember Zeref's face before she continued. "But, not Natsu. He's a good kid. It had to be that creep, Acnologia."

Lucy looked over at Brandish for the first time and wiped away her tear. "What do you mean?"

Brandish didn't want to explain, but she had no other choice. "Look, I barely know anything 'cause they only took the Sheriff's office right before you and Natsu got jumped. Apparently Natsu promised to give them the money in order to get you out alive. But Acnologia betrayed him and took you prisoner anyway. Knowing Natsu I'm sure he was outraged…"

Lucy looked away as a new form of guilt filled her eyes. "So, Natsu's gonna be killed all because he was trying to protect me?"

Brandish nearly choked as she yelled out with a panicked yell. "THEY'RE GONNA KILL HIM?!"

"Yep, and that really ain't none of your business."

Brandish and Lucy both turned their heads over to the door to find Wahl and Ajeel enter through the door way. The two women both forgot about their troubles and looked on with anger.

Lucy then stood up and yelled with rage. "Alright, where's Natsu!?"

Wahl laughed and looked over to the Desert King. "Huh, I dunno? What do you think Ajeel, how long does it take your boys to kill a man?"

Ajeel was too busy laughing and couldn't answer. Lucy lost her words as Brandish roared with anger. "YOU COWARDS!"

Ajeel marched over and grabbed her collar though the bars and slammed the woman into the back side of the cell door. "Ya know, you use to be a pretty little thing, but I may change that…"

Brandish scowled back at her former colleague as he began to laugh, and the creepy gunman continued as he held her collar high.

"Besides, it's all _your_ fault. If you had any brains you could've lied about hating us, followed him out to the execution and saved him yourself. But no, you had to be the rebel and curse our name. So we decided to leave ya in her to rot, just like you wanted."

Lucy then yelled out from her cell. "You're wasting your time! I bet Natsu's not even dead, yet!" She tried to sound tough, but deep down she had no idea what his chances of survival were at this point.

Ajeel then laughed and pulled a gun on her.

He aimed it right at her face and smiled. "Really? How's about I kill you and _you_ can try to find him yourself!?"

Lucy never even flinched as she kept her eyes right on his. "You don't have it in you."

Wahl and Ajeel both roared with laughter as the latter man holstered his gun and let go of Brandish. "HAH! You're right! Acnologia specifically told us to keep you alive…but he also wanted us to give you a little _tag_ in case you got loose."

He then looked over to Wahl as the Adjudicator pulled out an _unlit branding rod_ that was tipped with the same bizarre logo on Natsu's right arm.

Brandish screamed with protests as Lucy's eyes widened, and as he opened her cell door, Ajeel continued.

"Normally our guy _Bradman_ was the one who did this sorta thing…but since your little _cowboy_ killed him when he was just a baby I guess Wahl will have to step up and take his place."

Wahl grabbed Lucy's shackles and yanked her to her feet as he continued.

"I just hope his aim isn't as bad as it used to be…"

* * *

 **Boy, Brandish and Ajeel _really_ don't get along! And Nastu and Lucy both found out what the brand mark means...only Lucy's finding out the hard way.**

 **Chapter 13 tomorrow.**


	13. Chapter 13-The Shootout Part 1

**Author's Note: Okay! Natsu has escaped, Erza and Jellal have entered the building, Laxus has a plan, Acnologia does too, Ajeel's a dick, Lucy's being picked on, and HAPPY STILL HASN'T GOTTEN A FISH...this all sets up for a pretty good chapter.**

 **And here it is, chapter thirteen! (BTW, Happy probably won't get that fish...he's a horse.)**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_.**

* * *

Chapter Thirteen - The Shootout Part 1: A Riot in Magnolia

* * *

Acnologia sat at a small table in the main lobby of the Magnolia Train Station as he waited with unwanted patience. To his left and right were August and Invel, and right in front of the window was the quiet but slightly impatient Irene.

They all four spent the late night and early morning coming up with a strategy to take the town and finally get their hands on the doors to that bank.

August spoke up with his own consideration. "Well, sir I feel that patience may be the best route after all. Let _them_ make the first move, and we can catch them off guard once they've slipped up."

His white haired son, Invel spoke up next. "Yes, after all we can power on the train at any time if we want to make our escape."

It turns out that the Train Station _wasn't_ technically disabled. What had happened was the Spriggans originally went around to the tracks on the outskirts of town and changed the path ways to link up to the bypass that loops around the town. They also recently shot out the power box to keep the low-tech light bulbs from turning on, and also to force the building engines to shut down, thus creating a make-shift _illusion_ of the station's actual failure.

Irene rolled her eyes and sighed. "Have it your way. I still preferred our original idea..."

Acnologia scowled in the darkness as he went to address his three strategists. "Either way we're not leaving til that bank opens its door." He then stopped his next thought as he heard the sound of _boots_ and _spurs_ clinging out in the street.

The four Spriggans got up and ventured outside to find both bandits and locals all had their guns aimed at one another from atop roofs and inside windows, and walking out into the street was none other than Sheriff Laxus Dreyar, with a gun on his belt and a readied look on his face.

Acnologia laughed as he stood on the station porch. "So, the Sheriff finally comes to do his job?"

Laxus stood tall in the center of town as the entire population had guns aimed on one another.

He then spoke up with a frown. "I guess so. Now how's about you come down here and let me _finish_ it."

Acnologia howled with amusement. "You're a cocky son of a bitch, aren't ya?" He then drew his black and blue revolver and aimed it right at Laxus's head.

"How's about I just kill you right now?"

The tall sheriff never moved a muscle. "I tell ya what; bring that stupid looking gun down here and let's see how scary this _Black Dragon_ really is? As far as I've seen he's just a _scared_ _little lizard_."

The Black Dragon of the West began to growl with rage as he stepped down off the front stoop of the Train Station. "Well, what a shame. To think this horrible town would bear such a burden as their precious Sheriff."

As the two men stood alone in the streets, Laxus laughed and thought to himself. " _Alright, Gray. Show me what ya got._ "

It turns out that if one were to take a closer look at some of the Magnolia citizens' guns, there appeared to be completely fake. In fact, most of the indoor guns on the home team's side were just the tips of brooms and shovels, and the real forces of the artillery were either on the roofs, or making their way to the other side of town.

Meanwhile, as everyone kept their eyes on Main Street; Gray and Gajeel crept along the back end of the east side of town as Deputies Bickslow and Freed followed them into the enemy territory.

"Okay guys. Laxus said to get up to the back of Town Hall and see if we can't help out some of those hostages." Gray stood tall and led the small group around as he held a brand new silver revolver.

Gajeel smiled as he held his two new toys as well, and he then looked back at Freed and Bickslow. "Ya know I gotta say, your job is _way_ better than ours." He laughed as he began to reminisce on his old days as a _Phantom Lord_ Gang Member

Freed did not laugh. "I wouldn't be so sure. Baring the burden of our title is very challenging in times like these."

Bickslow however laughed and walked ahead. "Ah, quit acting all serous, Freed. Gajeel's right; our job is pretty cool!"

Then the four Magnolians made their way to the northern side of town and kept their eyes peeled for the back side of the Town Hall.

Back on Main Street, Laxus and Acnoligia were still stuck in an intense stare-down as the whole town watched.

Acnoligia never moved his eyes away from Laxus, but as soon as he confirmed it, he called out the Sheriff's bluff. "You crew has some nice rifles there, Sheriff."

Laxus scowled and grabbed his pistol. He then brought it up and shot right for Acnologia's head.

However, the Black Dragon bright out his left gun and met the bullet in thin air, rendering Laxus's shot useless. Acnologia then pulled out his right gun and shot it towards Laxus, but the large Sheriff quickly dodged it without moving his feet.

Laxus then whipped his brow. "Man, you scumbags really like to cheat these things, don't you?"

Acnologia then brought both of his guns up and smiled. "This is the west, boy. When there are no rules, we _can't_ cheat."

" _LAXUS!_ "

Acnologia looked behind the Sheriff's head, and Laxus himself reluctantly turned around to find _Natsu the Salamander_ barrel in on his horse, Happy with fire in his eyes.

"WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA, LAXUS?! ACNOLOGIA'S _MINE_ TO TAKE OUT!"

Laxus turned back around and rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Natsu."

Acnologia laughed with amusement. "No wait, this is better! Let me kill the little brat first…after all it seems like my boys couldn't get the job done, themselves."

Laxus kept his own scornful look on his face and addressed Acnologia. "Ain't happening, pal. You're mine to…"

*BANG*

Laxus yelled out with pain as Acnologia shot him square in his right thigh. Although it was not fatal, and Laxus seemed to have enough muscle to stop most of the bullet's progression; he still fell to the ground and lost grip of his gun as the man who fired shouted back.

"I said, I want the _brat_."

" _LAXUS!_ "

Natsu jumped off his horse and ran over with concern as he checked on the fallen Laxus, and the latter man laughed.

"Gsh, god damn it, Natsu. I said I had this."

Natsu grinned. "Yea well. Looks like now you don't." The pink haired gunman then stepped forward to greet Acnologia in the middle of the street.

The two men stood eye to eye as the whole town watched, and as the wind got quiet, Acnologia spoke up.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're alive. Truth be told I was _counting_ on it. I didn't actually want any of those fools to put the bullet in your head…I wanted that privilege all for _myself_."

Natsu looked back with intensity. "Funny, I was thinking the _exact same thing_ …"

"Calm down boy, I know you're not out for blood. You want something else…and _she'_ s right inside those doors." Acnologia then gestured at the Sheriff's Office and grinned with humor.

Natsu instantly forgot about the jeopardy of the bank and citizens as Acnologia made his gesture, and because of that the pink haired boy snapped and grabbed his gun.

"AGH!"

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

All three shots missed their target. More accurately, Acnologia _shot_ them all down.

Natsu shuttered at Acnologia's accuracy. "Damn it! How is he so fast!?"

Laxus yelled from his injured position. "You idiot! He has more bullets than you, and now you only have three shots!"

Natsu kept looking forward but threw his hand over to Laxus. "Alright, give me your gun!"

Laxus yelled back as he held his wounded right leg. "Are you a moron? I need this in case you blow this whole thing!" Although he tried to sound like a good safety net, Laxus couldn't even reach his own gun from his injured position on the ground.

Acnologia then fired another shot, and Natsu jumped up and swiftly moved to the right to dodge it.

The shooter then yelled with anger. "Stay still, you little shit! This _is_ a shoot-out, after all!"

Natsu then turned back around. "Oh, you want a _shoot-out_?" He then did the worst thing imaginable.

He shot two of his last three bullets right into the dirt.

The whole down gasped as Laxus yelled out again. "GOD DAMN IT! Get out of my way, Natsu! I'm gonna…"

Acnologia grinned in a very bizarre motion as he too shot out both the remaining bullets in his left gun, and followed by unloading two of his last right ones into the ground. He then tossed his empty left revolver and smiled.

"I like your style _Salamander_. Maybe I was wrong?...I shoulda never kicked you off the gang seven years ago."

Natsu never said a word, and Acnologia continued.

"Although, you would have never found this _shit heap_ of a town, and you would have never met all these fine people standing here today."

Still, Natsu remained silent.

Acnologia decided to go on. "But on the other hand, you woulda never broken the heart of that poor Heartfilia girl…what was her name, again?... _Lucy_?"

*BANG*

Natsu shot Acnologia square in the heart, and as the _Black Dragon_ dropped his gun he cursed out a ruthless cry and fell to the ground.

The West side of town lit up with cheers and yells as _Natsu the Salamander_ challenged and beat _Acnologia the Black Dragon_ , ending his reign once and for all.

Laxus went to say something, but as he did he heard more gun shots coming from behind the Town Hall.

He then sighed as he knew who it was. "Well, _Shit_."

It didn't take long for the snipers on both sides of the street to unload on one another, and as Natsu and Laxus somehow weren't being targeted, Makarov and Mirajane both yelled though the saloon doors.

Mira cried out with fear in her eyes as bullets and shrapnel flew everywhere. "LAXUS! NATSU! _HURRY!_ "

Makarov joined in. "YES! YOU _IDIOTS_ , GET INSIDE!"

Laxus stood up and stumbled over to the door, but he turned around and noticed Natsu was running towards the Sheriff's Office instead.

"NATSU, WHAT THE HELL?!"

Natsu ignored his friend as he quickly reloaded his gun and shot the two Spriggan Guards outside the Sheriff's Office. He then busted open the doors and saw no on sitting inside.

Suddenly, he ducked as two Spriggans came through the side door that neighbored the Town Hall.

They both smiled and aimed their weapons at him, and the first one gave Natsu a little threat.

"Opps, sorry no one here!" They went to fire, but not before a figure standing behind Natsu shot first, and put to quick bullets right into their chests.

Natsu turned around to find a badly wounded Brandish collapse to the ground and drop her smoking gun onto the floor.

He then ran over to her incapacitated body and cried out with concern. "WHERE'S LUCY!?"

Brandish looked alive but she had clearly been beaten up pretty badly, presumably by Wahl or Ajeel.

"Ugh, _Na-tsu_?"

Natsu yelled again. "PLEASE! WHERE IS SHE?"

The green haired sharp-shooter then thought about his question. "Lu-cy…oh no. Natsu, she was taken to the train station."

Natsu stopped breathing as he heard the local Magnolia Train start up and roar with power and then looked out the front facing window to watch the loud locomotive ride off into the West.

He growled and grabbed Brandish's loaded gun off the ground, and left the poor woman there to pass out from her wounds. He felt sorry for leaving an old friend to wait in the Sheriff's Office, but he had no choice; he was running out of time.

" _Don't worry, Lucy. I'm comin' for ya._ "

* * *

 **Oh sh*t not a _train_!?...Welp we gave it our all, but idk if Natsu can save the girl, now...chapter 14 tomorrow.**


	14. Chapter 14-The Shootout Part 2

**Author's Note: Hello! Here is Chapeter 14! This one felt weird to right for some reason, so tell me what you think!**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_.**

* * *

Chapter Fourteen - The Shootout Part 2: The Hero Rides

* * *

The town was blazing with bullets, and shots were flying everywhere; but Natsu still ran right into the streets and jumped over to Acnologia's wounded body.

The Black Dragon was surely going to die, but he still had enough breathes to give Natsu a few clues on Lucy's whereabouts.

Natsu grabbed the outlaw by the collar and looked him in the eye. "Alright you bastard. What'd you do with Lucy!? And for that matter where's my sister?!"

"HAH!" Acnologia spat blood right into Natsu's face. "You still think we have your sister? Boy you're still just as dense as you were seven years ago."

Natsu roared with more anger and head-butted Acnologia in the face for that comment, and then re-affirmed his previous question. "WHERE'S LUCY!?"

Acnologia laughed hysterically has he began to cough up more blood on himself this time. "Geeze, you just beat the most dangerous outlaw in the west, and the man who killed your family…and you're _still_ asking about that Heartfilia girl?...No wonder I never understood love."

Nastu punched him square in the jaw and repeated his rage. "LOOK, I don't have time you deal with your crap! Tell me who has her and where they went!"

Acnologia looked back at Natsu. "She's on the train you idiot…we figured we'd send her off on the _one_ thing you hate the most."

Natsu looked like he was going to throw up right there as Acnologia continued.

"And as for _who_? Let's just say Ajeel seemed pretty eager after I made him the offer…"

Acnologia then coughed up his last breath and died right there. Natsu yelled out with more rage and kicked the dirt in the street.

Then a Spriggan sniper who sat atop the Town Hall marked up on Natsu standing alone, but he quickly fell off the roof as an unknown sharpshooter rode in on a horse and saved the pink haired boy's life.

Natsu went to run toward the train station, but not before he saw Erza with a smoking rifle riding towards him with an empty Happy following her.

Erza holstered her weapon and shouted out. "Come one! They went out west!"

*BANG!*

They both ducked as two shots came from the Town Hall door, and right then August and Irene stood with smoking guns aimed right at the company.

Irene raised an eyebrow and grinned. "I knew you two weren't criminals. You tagged up with one of our lower gangs just to keep an eye on us."

August agreed, but turned to see Irene was even more focused than usual. "You know the red-haired one, don't you?"

Irene shrugged. "Can't you tell we look alike..." She then turned back to Erza and Natsu. "So nice to see you're still looking out for me Little Sis."

Erza bit her lip, and tried aiming her gun towards the two Spriggans, but she knew deep down she didn't have enough strength to pull the trigger.

"AGH!"

Then a shot came from the back side of the Town Hall porch, and just then Irene fell to her knees and grabbed the back of her right calf to find it bloody with a bullet.

She also tossed her gun in the air after the fact, but found Jellal ran up behind her, grabbed it out of thin air, and used it to shoot August right in the chest before he could retaliate.

Jellal looked up and tossed the gun to Erza. "Here...I'll let you do it."

Natsu began freaking out. "Geeze Jellal, you're gonna make her kill her own sister?! That's totally...!"

*SMACK!*

Erza used the dense butt of the pistol to whip Irene in the side of the head, and let her fall to the ground unconscious. She then turned to Natsu and raised an eyebrow.

"Well sorry! It definitely didn't look like _that_ was gonna happen from my end of things..." Natsu replied and turned to grab Happy. "But who cares, we gotta get going!"

The other two smiled and jumped on their horses as they all three quickly followed the train out to the west.

* * *

Meanwhile, back inside the Town Hall, Gray and Gajeel had just managed to get the last of the hostages out the back door.

Gray smiled and looked at his friend. "Man, I hope Freed and Bickslow are good enough to escort those guys out of here."

Gajeel then looked around with suspicion in his eyes. "Yea, now I think we oughta…"

*BANG*

" _AGH!_ " Gajeel cried out as a bullet skipped right over his left upper arm, and tore the skin right from the outer shoulder.

Over in the doorway to the right, Invel the General stood with a smoking gun as he blocked their next exit.

"Well, I figured some group of fools would come and break the hostages out sooner or later."

Gay then ignored the comment as he swiftly dodged a bullet from another wizard in the room, Neinhart the Colorful.

Neinhart then smiled. "Ah, well either way we now know who helped them escape. How disappointing for the both of you."

Gray pulled his gun and aimed it back at Neinhart. "Yea? Well it looks like your little show is over too."

Invel then laughed as he and his ally both out gunned their opponent. "Sure, but not if we kill you two right here and now."

Gray tightened the grip on his gun as he began to tense up, but soon after Gajeel stepped up and pulled out his right revolver with his good arm.

"Nah, from where I'm standing? I think we're sittin' pretty even right about now…"

While that was going on, the main door to the street swung open, revealing a very bizarre sight for all.

Levy and Juvia stood alone with two guns in their hands as they came to find their missing men.

Invel blinked and continued as he began mocking his opponents. "Well, maybe this _will_ be interesting after all."

Levy shook with fear but held her own gun aimed right at the Spriggan crew. "I-I don't think so. Just try to get by us!"

Neinhart cooed with a few hearts in is eyes as he sighed with relief. "Oh what a glorious moment for the four of you! Two valiant heroines jumping into danger to rescue their distressed gentlemen...actually this is quite odd even for me!"

"Well they are pretty stupid sometimes, but that's why we like 'em." Gajeel laughed and winked to Levy to try and calm her down.

Invel sighed and grabbed his second gun, and right as he did he let out a quick shot and hit the pistol right out of Levy's tender hand.

Levy thought she had got shot for a second and quickly jerked back, but then rubbed her now safe hand and stood quiet with fear. Meanwhile Gajeel shot out, but missed as Invel ducked faster than lightning.

Invel then pointed his pistol at a now defenseless Levy, and Neinhart laughed in amusement as he began to insult the poor girl. "Well, I suppose the strength lies with the gentlemen afterall."

The leading Spriggan went to shoot, but not before Juvia pulled her pistol and shot the gun right from Invel's hands.

The Spriggan General then froze in place never said a word as he was now one gun short.

Juvia smiled and kept her gun high. "Well, I guess it's time to mention that _I_ was once part of an outlaw gang as well, as was Gajeel. We were members of The _Phantom Lords_."

"Hehe..." Gajeel laughed with arrogance as he let Juvia continue.

"We were the most dominant gang in all the west before we grew too powerful and became overrun by the marshals, but even seven years later we hold a gun pretty well for ourselves."

She then kept her cool as the now timid Neinhart pull a second gun on her, as well, and right then the blue haired beauty continued.

"And don't worry. You two won't be the first people I've shot before."

* * *

Now, we arrive at the Fairy Tail Saloon, where the majority of the unarmed town's folk were staying for the duration of the mini-war.

Elfman stood guard with his shot gun as the others stood by with fear. Porlyusca and Wendy tried to help Laxus with his injured leg, while Mira, Lisanna and Makarov all stood by with concern in their eyes.

Mira spoke first as she grabbed his hand. "Laxus are you alright? That looks pretty painful." The head bar keep gestured towards his now bloody mess of a leg.

Lisanna spoke up after her sister. "Yea, do you need anything else to make you feel better?"

"Oh get out of my way, would you!" Porlyusca tried to shoo them away, but the Strauss girls stood right by their friend and Sheriff as he laid there in pain.

Laxus laughed as he took Mira's shaking hand. "Geeze, you guys can all calm down. I'm fine." He then looked at Makarov. "Did ya' happen to see where Natsu went?"

Wendy stopped helping Porlyusca to add on to his question. "Oh yea! I hope he'll be alright. I saw him running around in the streets and he looked like he was really close to getting shot!" She held her hand sup to her cheeks as she assumed the worst.

Makarov shook his head and sighed. "Yes, he went with two strangers and followed the rogue train out west. I just hope…"

Just then the door of the saloon busted open and a group of three Spriggans entered in with ease. The first socked Elfman right in his tall face and grabbed his gun, while the other two stood by and laughed. Evergreen quickly ran to her husband's side as the other bar members stood in silence

It appeared that soon after, Wahl and Dimaria stepped up with a wicked smile on his face, a satisfied grin on hers, and two guns in each of their hands.

The mad Spriggan man laughed and looked around the fearful room. "So, who wants to come with use?! We need an escort into that Bank just next door from here!"

No one answered as Dimaria continued to she looked around the room, and then landed right on Makarov. "Hmm, the _Mayor_ wants to help us out? I'm sure he won't wan to see his town fall _and_ his people die all in one day…"

Wahl laughed, and then caught the eye of Mirajane and Lisanna who both stood in fear behind Laxus's table.

He gave them both a wicked grin. "Well, we already had enough trouble with the first girl, but you two look…"

*BANG*

Laxus grabbed the gun from his belt beside the table and shot Wahl right in the chest.

As he finished, Elfman socked the guy who stole his gun and looked back to the other two as he aimed it in their faces. Mirajane on the other hand pulled out Laxus's second gun and aimed it right at a now out-gunned Dimaria, who had no choice but to hold her hands high.

The remaining Spriggans cowered in fear with their hands in the air as Laxus gave them no sympathy.

"Alright you creeps, get the hell out of my town."

* * *

As everything in Magnolia was taking place, Lucy finally woke up from her brief unconscious position as she found herself inside a moving train.

She then went to move her chained hands, but screamed with pain as she now had a hot brand mark on the top of her right hand. After being branded, the pain was too much for her to handle, and she fell to the floor and passed out. It was here that she lost complete track of everything, and yelled out to the lone guard.

"Hey! Creep! Ya mind telling me where I am?" Lucy tried to hold her chain cuffs steady to keep them from touching her fresh brand scar.

The passive looking Spriggan was sitting on a barrel reading the local paper, He tried to ignore her and continue reading. "Look, just stay quiet for me while we make it to the next town. I'll get ya water or whatever you want then, but right now I'm trying to stay informed with the world."

Lucy blinked a few times without looking very impressed. "You've got to be kidding me...the most feared crime gang in the west sends a guy reading a newspaper to guard me?"

The man laughed. "Wow, it was supposed to be 'Elderly Appreciation Day' in Magnolia today? That's a relief, if I woulda caught myself killing some poor old man for no reason, I don't know what I would have done..."

He then moved the paper down to reveal himself as _Jacob the Tracker_ , and he also had a very menacing appearance to him this time around.

Lucy kept quiet as she took in the details of her captor. He had a slightly bald head, and a little five o'clock shadow. He also had a skull tattoo pressed right on his forehead, and his eyes looked cold and calculating.

Jacob started chuckling under his breath. "You're a pretty little thing, I'll give ya that, but just try to keep quiet before I get bored." He began reading the paper once again and left Lucy to think quietly alone.

Lucy held her breath and tried thinking of a plan of some sorts. _"Well, he can read, and he actually sounds like a pretty smart guy. If I want to get out of here, I'll have to act fast..."_

She began scanning the room and tried looking for anything she could to get herself out of this situation. She then looked over a few piled up crates to find a shiny but large hammer sitting on the floor of the cargo cart.

Lucy grinned with pride as she switched her feet over the other side of her seat and began trying to stand up. Jacob seemed to be occupied with the lower end of his paper which meant she had more room to stand up. Lucy kept her chains quiet from any rattling and tried to tip toe as much as she could to get the object.

 _"Just get near the crate and fall behind it. This creep will jump up to stop me, and then I'll have time to nail him right up side the head."_

Lucy's brow was beginning to sweat, and just as she was about ready to run out of breath, she got right beside the crate next to the hammer.

*CLICK*

Lucy stood tall without any control of her thoughts as she instinctively held her hands high. She felt the barrel of a pistol aimed at her back, and now realized Jacob was no longer shuffling through his papers.

"Wow, Salamander must have taught you a lot of reckless behaviors. A girl like you doesn't come of as naturally stupid, but now I guess anything's possible."

"HEY!" Lucy took offense to that, but felt the barrel of the gun pressing harder into her back.

Jacob rolled his eyes. "Cut the crap girlie. Sit back down, and don't make another noise."

Lucy gave him an angry nod, but just as he backed up, she fell forward and landed right on top of another crate.

She meant to land in between the crate and the hammer, but now regretted ever trying to fall in the first place as she geared up for a bullet in the back.

However, the bullet never came.

"Oh geeze...um Miss could you please cover yourself before you try and stand up?"

"Wha...?" Lucy realized her dress was hiked up in the back after falling, which left Jacob with a clear view of her underwear to all of her embarrassment.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She yelled out with a cry of discomfort. Lucy then rolled off the crate and jabbed Jacob in the stomach with a soft kick. "TELL ME YOU DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING!"

"No ma'am!" He confirmed as he held a hand over his face. "I'd never try to ruin your decency."

"Huh..?" Lucy realized he wasn't lying or acting, and now had a brand new idea. "Awe...how sweet."

She then raised and eyebrow and tried to stand. "Well hey, we _are_ alone on this cart after all..." She gave him a sultry grin and began leaning in closer.

"Oh god..." Jacob tried turning around. "I don't want to pull a gun on you in...this position, but if you make me I'll..."

*WHACK*

Lucy ended him at mid-sentence as she found the old hammer lying in the rubble, and beat the poor Spriggan over the head with it in order to knock him out cold.

She exhausted her breath and grabbed the hand cuff keys from his belt. "Well...hopefully Natsu never finds out about that."

As she undid her shackles, she tossed them out the open door. Lucy then looked out the door herself to see just how fast they were moving.

"Oh man, we're flying! Maybe if I can get to the engine and stopped this thing on the inside…" She then wondered over to the cart door and tried to make an entrance into the next rail car.

However, as she opened the door, she was greeted by Wahl Icht standing there with his gun in hand.

"Damn, Girlie I'm glad I came here just in time!" Ajeel Ramel walked forward as Lucy held up her hands, and he then peered through the room and saw two things. Her cuffs were gone and probably out the window, and he also noticed what she had done to Jacob.

"Well shit, that dumbass Jacob's out cold!" He laughed as he nodded in amusement. "I oughta thank you for knocking his ass out, but I'm not that kinda guy."

Lucy stepped back and looked at him with anger as her heart began to race. "No, you're just a creep who enjoys laughing at your friends' pain. Especially if their _women_." She reminded him of the recent moment when he physically abused Brandish back in Magnolia.

Ajeel laughed as he walked forward to spread a little more fear. "Ha! You have one smart mouth on you, Blondie. But I gotta say…" He then looked over her shoulder to see a coil of rope lying on the floor.

"…you're gonna be praying to that _Salamander_ once _I'm_ through with you."

* * *

 **Chapter 15 tomorrow! (it is now officially finals week at my college...so scary.)**


	15. Chapter 15-He Really Can't do Trains

**Author's Note: Hello! We're back with the fifteenth chapter in the FT western! Now of course, there was gonna be a train scene sooner or later...but since when is the main character in a western afraid of trains!?**

 **Either way I hope you enjoy!**

 **Also, I do not own _Fairy Tail_.**

* * *

Chapter Fifteen - He _Really_ Can't do Trains...

* * *

The wind was howling and all the sand and dust was flying everywhere. Natsu, Erza and Jellal all raced forward in the middle of the Fioren Desert as they rode down the runaway Magnolia train that contained the captive daughter of the _Hearfilia Railroads_.

Natsu knew he didn't like trains, but he was ready to conquer his fear in order to save his friend. At least, he _thought_ he was…

Jellal then looked over and shouted to Natsu as they came closer to the train. "Okay! When we get up beside the back end, you must jump right at the…!"

Natsu shouted back. "Hey, don't worry about me! This isn't the first time I've tried running down a train before!"

Erza smiled and yelled over to Jellal. "I think he'll be just fine! Let's run to the other side and try to knock the engine out!"

Jellal nodded and him and Erza both raced ahead and rode along the right side of the train.

Meanwhile Natsu kept his horse, Happy riding along the left side, and as he did he began to see a series of quotes from his deceased brother flash into his head.

" _Alright, let's stick close to the back of the train and keep our distance from the engine_."

Natsu laughed as he slowly kept Happy as close to the train as possible. He noticed there were a few guards at the top of the upper cars, and he figured by staying close he could hide from their line of view.

As he slowly got closer to the front of the train, the engine howled with a loud roar, which spooked his blue steed half to death.

Natsu smiled and brushed his mane. "Don't worry, Happy! We got this!"

In another universe, the horse would have responded with something like " _Sure thing!_ " or " _Righteo_ ", but this wasn't one of those places. Instead Happy just smiled and nodded.

Natsu then got closer to the engine, and smiled as Zeref's next suggestion came to mind.

" _Remember, the good loot is *always* in the front car._ "

Natsu grinned and whispered to himself. "Oh yea. I've found ya now, Lucy!"

He then looked at the open door of the front car, and as he peered though he couldn't really see anyone inside.

"Well, here goes nothing…Happy, wait for me to finish this mess!"

The horse nodded in full sprint as Natsu took a large gulp of air, and as he finished the hard headed gunslinger jumped into the small open door of the front cart and rolled over into the middle.

"Ugh…hey I actually don't feel that bad!" Natsu smiled with pride and went to stand up as he heard a strange noise.

" _Mfff!_ "

Natsu's head darted around as he saw Lucy sitting on a crate with her hands tied behind her back and a cloth gag covering her mouth. He immediately looked worried and yelled at her to calm down.

"Lucy! Don't worry, I'll get you out…"

" _MFFF!_ "

The damsel tried to warn her pink headed hero about Ajeel standing on the other side of the car room, but it was too late as the nasty Spriggan kicked Natsu in the side and threw him across the room.

Ajeel began to laugh as he pulled out his gun. "Damn! I was hoping you were gonna fall out! Oh well, I'll enjoy this a lot more." He then held his gun up and aimed it at Natsu, and as he did Lucy frantically began to squirm in place for fear of her friend.

As Ajeel sat in wait for Natsu to respond. He then noticed the former rail worker began to look a little green around the neck, and as the train picked up speed, Natsu was fully taken over by his motion sickness.

"Ugh…Oh god, not now…" Natsu held his stomach as he wiggled in pain.

" _MPFF SPFF!?_ "

Lucy shouted * _MOTION SICKNESS!?_ * and would have strangled him to death then and there if her hands were freed.

Ajeel couldn't contain himself. "HAHAHA! _WHAT!?_ YOU _STILL_ HAVE THAT!?"

Natsu slowly turned his head and looked up at his enemy. "Ugh…alright Ajeel, hand her over!"

Lucy blushed behind her cloth gag as Ajeel laughed in his face. "HA! You don't ever give up, do you? Man you really are like your…"

He was stopped as Natsu jumped up and tackled him to the ground. They rolled around and knocked each other back and forth as boxes and objects flew everywhere.

Meanwhile Lucy had finally made some progression in her own situation.

" _BLA!_ Okay now that that's out of the way. I need out of this thing!" Lucy spit out her gag and tried to stand as she looked for a knife or blade sitting somewhere in the train car.

She slowly wobbled over to the other side of the room and landed right beside the unconscious body of Jacob. Lucy then leaned over and grabbed the conveniently placed knife out from his belt.

" _Ouch!_ Oh man this is gonna take forever using my left hand." Although her binding was actually rather thin, Lucy had no choice but to slow down her cutting and rest her burnt right hand in order to keep it from rubbing up against the rope.

Natsu and Ajeel meanwhile were still fighting on the other side of the cart. Both of them lost their guns, but the Desert King seemed to now have the upper hand.

He mercilessly beat Natsu several times in the face, but not before Natsu rolled away and nailed him right in the side with a hard kick.

Natsu slowly grabbed ahold of a tall box and lifted himself off the ground. "Man, you're one nasty fighter…" He then began to pant loudly and kept his hands on his knees in order to catch his breath.

As they both stood up, the near-psychotic Ajeel looked over to Natsu and laughed.

"So what now?! You beat the Spriggan! You killed the boss and you may even save the girl! But what now, _Salamander_!? Deep down you're just like your brother…deep down you're just a _criminal_ at heart."

Natsu chose not to believe him as he scowled and looked Ajeel right in the eye. "Don't you say anything about my brother! YOU HEAR ME!?" He would have ran forward, but he was out of breath and in far too much pain.

The proud Ajeel looked at Natsu and laughed again. "Or what?"

*CLICK*

"Or else _this_!"

Natsu and Ajeel both snapped their heads over to Lucy, who stood above her freshly cut coil of ropes and held a loaded pistol right at Ajeel's head.

Natsu panicked and noticed that gun was actually the one he took from Brandish at the Sheriff's Office, and he nervously looked on as his timid friend now held it in her hands.

The Spriggan turned and laughed. "Blondie do you even know how to use that? And Natsu are you really gonna let _her_ steal the show!?"

Truth was Natsu didn't care about the glory, but he _did_ know that he absolutely refused to let Lucy walk away with blood on her hands when this was all said and done.

Lucy's face looked ready to shoot, but her hands were not holding still.

Ajeel looked right at her eyes and laughed. "I told ya. You don't have the guts."

Natsu then looked to his right and saw his brother's old black and silver revolver lying close by. He then remembered one last quote from his dearly departed sibling before he made his next move.

 _"_ _Just keep your hand on that gun._ "

Ajeel slowly walked towards Lucy as he began to smile.

"Okay, show's over Princess. Hand me the gun."

Lucy shook with fear and closed her eyes. As the blonde turned away she went to pull down on the trigger.

*BANG*

Lucy's heart stopped as she quickly opened her eyes and looked to see a large bullet hole showing right through Ajeel's heart.

The Spriggan menace looked over to see Natsu standing with a smoking gun, and once he collected the shot, Ajeel smiled like a mad man as he began to bleed out and collapsed to the ground.

"Natsu, the _Salamander_ …"

As Ajeel hit the ground, Natsu tossed the gun and stumbled over to Lucy. Her heart skipped a beat as the petrified blonde dropped her gun and nearly dropped him on his fall forward.

The worn Lucy then looked at her friend with confused eyes. "Natsu, are you okay!?"

Natsu made no sudden move to reply, but instead seemed to be collecting his breath and balance. This left Lucy with a sad look in her eye.

"Natsu...I'm sorry I said those nasty things to you...I-I said you helped them shoot my dad, I said you only wanted me for his money, I'm just...so sorry for everythi-..."

She went to continue, but was quickly silenced as the pink haired boy grabbed her in a hug and immediately moved in to kiss her passionately on the lips.

From there Lucy's entire world froze. She did know whether to float into the sky, or to melt down to the ground.

In any case, she chose a _third_ option and embraced the romantic moment delivered by her new hero.

As they finished kissing, Natsu leaned back and smiled. "Wow, I didn't even throw up _once_!"

*SMACK*

Lucy slapped him right in the face and turned away with a face full of red.

"Oh you're such a jerk, Natsu! I should have known you say that." She then turned back over to find him nearly vomiting from his motion sickness as she face palmed and sighed.

"Geeze, why did it have to be _him_ …?" She asked herself why Natsu was the one who met her on that special day, but as she finished her thought, Lucy heard a whistle coming from outside.

"HEY! COME ON!" Jellal and Erza were riding fast paced with the train as they tried to hold a large cloth blanket between their horses. Happy also road behind the in full sprint to stay by their side.

Jellal then continued as he shouted his command. "You both need to jump!"

Natsu tried to shout over his upset stomach. "Ugh, you guy's couldn't even stop the train?"

Jellal snapped back with impatience. "It's gained too much speed! YOU NEED TO JUMP, LUCY!"

Lucy looked horrified as she held a very ill Natsu up to her side. "I CAN'T JUMP ON THAT THING!?"

Erza shouted back at her with no other option. "OH COME ON! We know you can do it! Besides you're probably not _that_ heavy!"

Lucy shouted over to the scarlet haired girl with anger. "I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU AND THAT STILL HURT! Ugh…oh man."

Lucy then panicked as she looked down to her sick friend. "Ugh, well here goes nothing…"

Lucy grabbed Natsu's lifeless body and jumped onto the tarp, but as the two of them landed their combined weight pulled Jellal and Erza off their horses as they all four landed in the dirt with a hard thud.

As the smoke cleared and the massive train roared away into the far west, the three horses stopped and their riders sat in the dirt.

Then the four of them moaned in pain as Erza spoke up first. "Well I must apologize, it appears that I was wrong on my judgment…I guess you _are_ that heavy."

Lucy shook with anger, but before she could say anything, Natsu brought her in for another hug.

"HA! Thanks for getting' me out alive, Lucy."

The blonde girl then lit up with red and softly smiled back. "Yea…you too."

* * *

 **Ah he saved her, _and_ they had a moment!...then Natsu ruined it. Also we're in an AU and Erza is still droppin' funny one-liners.**

 **Let's see how the whole thing resolves in Chapter 16 tomorrow...yes, sadly I said _resolve._ :_(**

 **(BTW you will notice all those quotes that flashed through Natsu's head actually did come from Zeref in chapter one)**


	16. Chapter 16-The Final Ride

**Author's Note: Welp *Sobbing into my tissue* it's here, the final chapter of _Fairies of the Wild West_ is finally here... X(**

 **Joking aside, thank you to EVERYONE who came out to read and review my story! You're all awesome people, and I am so happy that I was able to provide you with an entertaining read over the past couple of weeks, but sadly this is truly the final chapter.**

 **After finishing this story, my eyes have now seen some light with respect to AUs...I may even consider doing some more in the future (Maybe a _Pirate_ themed story for Gajeel x Levy...or a _Secret Agent_ story for Gray x Juvia!?)...eh I'll worry about that later. (BTW I am debating on getting this story put into one of those NaLu communities, but I'm not sure if it would fit/be good enough. Throw me some suggestions or comments via PM if you have any, or if you just want to chat about what you liked/hated from the story. Also if you have any stories you want me to read I can see what I can do!)**

 **Shameless plug: I will be releasing a _FT Christmas Special_ this Sunday, December the 13th! It will sort of revert back to the regular FT universe and it will once again feature my OC, Nigel Thomas (FYI the theme is gonna be a Secret Santa gift exchange with the whole FT guild: a 12 part special set to end on December 24!)**

 **Also, stay tuned during that X-mas story if you wanna hear updates on my _much bigger project_...the return and revival of my _Pokemon x FT crossover series_ (mainly the news of my long awaited sequel story!)**

 **Either way enjoy the last chapter for me! And like I always say in the notes of my final chapters: to quote Jon Stewart- Here it is, your "Moment of Zen."**

 **Finally, I DO NOT OWN _FAIRY TAIL_!**

* * *

Chapter Sixteen - The Final Ride

* * *

The day rolled into evening as the beautiful sunset casted a wide array of oranges and reds clear across the western horizon. As the sky grew darker, Natsu and the others road back to Magnolia as they began to discuss their long and adventurous day.

"Wow, you really have motion sickness?" Erza tried to hold her smile to a small grin as she road bedside Natsu and Happy.

Lucy sat behind Natsu on his blue steed as she rolled her eyes. "Yea, and he barely made it out alive." She then tightened her gripped on his waste and laid her exhausted head on his upper back.

Jellal laughed from the other side as he observed the scene unfold. "Now, now. Every man has his weakness. The important this is Natsu overcame it to save your live."

Natsu then chuckled and lit up with laughter. "Yea, ya here that Lucy! Jellal said you _needed_ me to get motion sickness."

Lucy slammed her head into his shoulder and sighed. "No, Natsu…he didn't."

Erza then brought up another question. "So, Natsu. Now that you've successfully defeated the Spriggans, have you ever considered moving out to the capital to become a Marshal?"

"Oh yea! That could be exciting!" Lucy lit up with joy at the thought of Natsu moving out east. "You'd be perfect at that!"

Natsu then thought about it for a moment, and realized just how many marshals he's worked with in his life time (His foster-father Gildarts, his trainers Bisca & Alzack, and finally his new partners Jellal and Erza.)

He then smiled with hope in his eyes. "Yea that'd be awesome! Only…I'm still and ex-convict, remember…?"

Lucy then began to frown as Jellal continued. "Yes, well I guess we aren't the deciders. In any case. Congrats again on saving the town. I'm sure the capital city would be proud of your accomplishments.

Natsu then road with pride and let out a loud laugh. "Oh yea! YA HEAR THAT CAPITAL! I SAVED THE DAY!"

"Sure you did, Natsu." Lucy let out a tiny giggle and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

Natsu then caught on to something as he looked down to Lucy's hands around his waist. He found Lucy had tied a piece of cloth over her right hand, but he could see a few pieces of a very familiar brand mark sticking out of its edges.

"Hold on, Lucy...did they brand you, too?"

Natsu sounded like he didn't want to hear and answer, but Lucy nodded her head and repeated the same quote used by him when she first discovered his brand scar.

"Yea, it hurt when I got it…but now it's _pretty_ cool."

She smiled and winked as she took off the make-shift bandage and showed him her new scar.

Natsu laughed and commented back to her. "Well, you know you can't go hidin' that thing at those fancy parties back east! You gotta show all your stuffy friends how tough you are!"

Lucy paused and realized that she would more than likely be making the journey back to the east alone, and because of that she brought Natsu in for a tighter hold.

"Yea…sure thing."

* * *

As they finally made it back in town they were greeted by several familiar faces.

Standing in the middle of the street was Gajeel and Gray who both held Levy and Juvia as they all looked on to the arriving cavalry.

Gray then lit up with a grin. "Hey, look whose back! How was the ride?" He asked with sarcasm as he clearly saw Lucy was okay.

Gajeel then snapped over to Natsu. "I hope you're happy, Salamander! We had to save this place the minute you ran off to chase some train, and _I_ got shot!" He held his injured arm out, and as he did Levy flicked the wound to shut him up.

"What he means to say is congrats! And I'm so glad to see you're alright, Lucy!" Levy jumped over to give Lucy a hug as soon as she came off the horse.

Lucy smiled at her new friend's kindness. "Awe, thanks Levy! I'm glad to see you're okay, too!"

Levy then put her arm around Lucy and began to wink. "Man, I bet Natsu was pretty heroic when he stopped that train to save you."

Lucy blushed and let out a little smile. "Um, actually he just sorta _jumped right on_ while it was still moving…"

Levy nearly fainted with excitement. "NO WAY!? Ooo that's so romantic!" She gave Lucy a big hug as they both laughed with joy.

Natsu let out a small laugh, but not before Sheriff Laxus came by to put his arm around his shoulder. "Man, Natsu you really stepped up today. I'm actually impressed."

Natsu scratched his head. "Hey, thanks Laxus! Sorry about that leg, though. Hehe."

Laxus looked sort of angry that he brought it up, but he waved it off as a usual silly quote by Natsu. "Yea, whatever…"

Mirajane, Lisanna and Makarov all joined in as the entire town came over to celebrate his victory.

Makarov looked very pleased with his young friend's achievements. "Well done my boy. You brought a lot of pride to this town."

"Oh dear, this is all too much to handle!" Mira then giggled and began to fan herself as she looked at Natsu and Lucy standing side by side.

Lisanna then winked at Lucy as she began to smile. "You better be nice to my Natsu!"

Lucy felt very uncomfortable from all the attention as she still barely knew any one there. "Ah gee…thanks guys."

"NATSU DRAGNEEL! COME FORTH!"

The whole town froze as Natsu and the rest of the gang looked over to the Train Station. They all noticed a brand new shiny black locomotive was sitting in the station and a large army of capital officials was standing outside the doors.

Natsu jumped up and growled. "WHO'S ASKIN' FOR ME!?"

Then a man with brown hair tied back in an ornate bun stood forward wearing a pair of very thin glasses. He also wore a military uniform and looked on with a stern expression.

"My name is Captain Lahar. I am the leading officer of the Fiore Military's western division and I survey this region for acts of crime. We received a message from a young lady who ventured in from this town by means of train."

" _Cana...she's alright after all._ " Natsu smiled and thought about his sister, and laughed as he looked back. "So what do you want me for?"

Lahar stood tall. "We had a few concerns that pertain to your involvement in the recent events, let's walk this way…"

As he took Natsu to the Town Hall, Lahar then ordered his other men to survey the town and administer more help to its people.

Immediately, a tall and very handsome boy with dark blond hair stepped up and looked Lucy right in the eyes.

"My my, I heard the daughter of Jude Heartfilia was beautiful, but no one ever said anything about _breath taking_." He looked down and grabbed her hand as he introduced himself.

"My name is Sargent Hibiki Lates, and I'm here with the capital's forces. Shall I escort you to one of our camp sites for some refreshments?"

Lucy shook with fear and smiled at her odd new friend. "Um, hello…my name's Lucy…and no you may not."

Then a tall, dark and handsome boy with medium length black hair looked over to Juvia and gave her a cold shoulder.

"You're okay, _I guess_. The name's Ren Akatsuki, but don't bother waiting for me to ask for your's." The strange military man then leaned into Juvia as she became more and more uncomfortable.

"Um, Gray…he's scaring me." She waited for her valiant boyfriend to save her with passion and grace, but Gray just sort of nodded and turned her the other way.

"Okay, then don't talk to him…" He kept a straight face as she latched on to his arm.

"OH GRAY! I knew you would never let another man steal me!"

The Strauss sisters then began to giggle as a third strange boy with bright blonde hair came over to greet them.

"Well, my name is Eve Tearm, but forget that. I'm so blown away by your sibling beauty that I don't even need a last name!" He smiled with soft eyes as Laxus looked over to Elfman.

" _Tsk_. Aren't you gonna do anything about that?" Laxus eyed the little Eve as he cupped Mira's hands in his own, but he chose not to act.

Elfman laughed. "Nah! A _real man_ need to jump up and do his own work!" He then smacked Laxus on the back and turned away, leaving the angry Sheriff to roll his eyes.

Jellal and Erza both looked around and smiled, and the former spoke first. "Ah, I remember back when we were cadets. You know, we met right outside the main hall of the academy...?"

Erza blushed and smiled softly. " _Oh_ I don't forget, I'm just trying to remember why we…"

"Oh could it be, Miss _Erza_!? _*SNIIIF*_ It's soo wonderful to smell you delicious _parfum_ once again!"

Jellal looked confused and turned around as Erza stood still as a frozen statue.

"Oh, no…not _him_." She cringed at the thought of the new guest.

*SNIFF* *SNIFF* " _MAN!_ "

Then a short, orange haired man with a hideous face and a reeking stench crept up behind the beautiful red-haired Marshal. "Ugh, your wonderful hair is still so shiny and full of life! I am so happy to see you stayed so beautiful. _MAN!"_

Erza nearly sank into the ground until Jellal spoke up. "Erza, is this a former boyfriend?"

"AGH…" Erza's world shattered as Jellal's question burned through her mind. "No…just a very forward acquaintance…"

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Lieutenant _Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki_. And lucky for me Erza and I go back well into the distant past." The little man then jumped up behind her and began to stiff her scent once again.

"OH! My sweet honey, I have missed you so…"

"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU TROLL!" The red haired marshal couldn't take it anymore, and Erza quickly jumped up to punt the poor man clear across the other side of the town.

" _MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!_ " Ichiya shouted with passion as he flew through the sky and landed hard into the ground, and as he skidded across the dirt road, he landed at the feet of Captain Lahar.

"Ahem…"

Erza and the others all turned around as Lahar and Natsu returned from his debriefing. "Well, it appears Natsu has no other information for our reports. We will continue to monitor the town as the week progresses." He then gestured to his guards to walk over to the Sheriff's office to confront the other captured Spriggans.

As he left however, Lucy stepped up and shouted a question. "Hold on, what's gonna happen to Brandish?"

Natsu then added on. "Oh yea. And what about that nut job Jacob and that runaway train?"

Lahar turned and smiled. "The train will have the misfortune of greeting our far western division in the next town over. As for the Spriggan known as _Brandish._ She will be taken back with the others for further interrogation."

Lucy wasn't satisfied. "Well make sure she's let off easy. Brandish isn't the same as those other monsters."

The Captain admired her forgiving nature and smiled as he began to walk away. "I'll take note of that, Miss Heartfilia, but you shouldn't worry now. It appears Brandish was also marked with the Spriggan's enemy brand; so this will help us make our final judgment call on her future…And please, _Marshal Scarlet_ leave my soldiers alone for the time being."

Before she could allow Ichiya to return for one more "free sample", Erza grabbed Jellal's hand and ran for their horses. "Okay, it's time to go back to the capital! _NOW!_ "

Natsu then jumped up and ran after them. "Wait up you jerks! I'm coming too!"

The whole group gasped as Natsu froze in his tracks.

"What…?"

Mira began to frown. "Natsu, you've been here for seven years."

Wendy the nurse's aide then spoke up after that. "Yea, and you've been a big help around town lately."

Jellal then stepped forward to ask a simple question. "Hold on, are you sure you're allowed to go east?"

Natsu grinned. "YEP! They have my new job ready and everything. They told me to go back with you guys to become a Marshal! Then I can find my sister, Cana and live with her!"

He then stopped and turned back around to collect the whole view of the town. "Well, I _think_ I'm ready anyway..."

Gray laughed and spoke before the group could continue. "Ah, man. Don't let us hold you back! You gotta go live your dream, it's just like your dad did!"

Gajeel then smirked. "Yea, and the sooner you leave town the better!"

Mayor Makarov then sighed. "Well, to be honest I've treated all you rail road hands like my own children over the years. My feelings aside, I hope you're ready for your next journey."

Lisanna then winked and spoke up. "Ah he'll be fine! Beside, I'm sure him and Cana will be sure to visit now and again."

Natsu the lit up with a big smile. "Oh yea!" and he went to say more but Lucy jumped over to congratulate him.

"Natsu that's so exciting! It's just like you wanted!" She was so happy for him she never even noticed he grabbed her hands first.

Natsu smiled and looked her right in her eyes. "What are you so worked up about? You're coming with me!"

Lucy then froze in place. "R-Really?"

Natsu turned to her and smiled as he took a firm hold her hands. "Well, _duh_? You said you wanted me to move out west!? Now we're both happy!"

The towns folk laughed and smiled, and Mira, Lisanna and Levy nearly fell over with an over does of romantic feelings as Natsu took Lucy's hands.

Lucy on the other hand had never heard any greater new in her entire life, and her entire world flipped upside down as Natsu said those words.

"Aha-ahaha! _NATSU!_ " She then jumped up and gave him a big hug as the town's folk laughed.

Finally, Laxus then rolled his eyes and walked away. "Agh, just get out of my town, Natsu."

Natsu smiled and nodded his head. "No problem!" He then grabbed Lucy's hand and climbed up on to his trusty steed.

As Happy collected his two riders, the three horses road away; and the people of Magnolia waved good bye.

However, soon after Erza took the lead. " _NO!_ We're not going fast enough! We _need_ to keep moving!" She cried out in fear as images of Ichiya haunted her memory, making Jellal laugh a bit in sympathy.

As Erza cried out, Lucy grabbed Natsu by the waste and smiled. "Actually, we can talk _all_ the time we need."

Natsu then grinned and turn his head to give her another quick kiss on the lips, but as they finished he moved away and made a gross gagging noise.

Lucy punched him in the back. "AGH! YOU'RE SO MEAN!"

Natsu turned around and gave her his signature toothy grin. "Ah I was just messin' with ya' Lucy! Man this is gonna be fun livin' with you!"

Lucy blushed and rested her head on his muscular back as she sighed. "Yea sure, whatever…"

Then as they made off for the east, the three horses road into the big blue night as the riders raced towards the capital of Fiore, and on into their new lives.

 _The End!_

* * *

 **Um, Natsu? Lucy!? You left with out grabbing any luggage, or important items!?...Ah who cares, they're not listening to me, anyway...**

 **Guys thank you all once again for reading & reviewing! Enjoy your week and have a _Happy Holiday Season_!**

 **(Also...don't ask me about the Columbus Crew...I don't want to talk about it.)**

 **(EDIT:...um...I'm not sure if any of you are caught up on the manga, and the release of today's chapter...465...if not, drop what you're doing and go read...it's pretty...yea)**

 **(EXTRA EDIT: SO I've overhauled this entire story! If you've come back to read it after reading its original version you probably noticed I fine-tuned the plot and added/moved _A LOT_ of Spriggans around. I also fixed some old typos that have always bothered me. I'll be honest and say this is my favorite story on my page, so the chances of me making edits to make sure its perfect will probably happen more than once.)**


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